Jenson Brooksby talks about living with autism

Jenson Brooksby tugged at the right shoulder of his red T-shirt and played with a few strands of his dirty blonde hair as he spoke to The Associated Press about what he would like the world to know about him.

Once part of an emerging group of American men who made their mark with major victories at Grand Slam tournaments, Brooksby wants people to know what happened when he was away from the tour for almost two “frustrating” years. said, made it “easy to get depressed.” Ranked 33rd at the age of 21 in 2022, just a year after turning pro, he is now unranked after being sidelined by injuries, surgery and a ban related to missed drug tests that was eventually reduced.

As Brooksby prepares to return to competition in January, including at the Australian Open, he wants people to hear about his experiences living with autism spectrum disorder, which he publicly discussed for the first time during a recent interview.

“It's … just something I don't want to keep to myself,” Brooksby said during a post-practice lunch in a boardroom at the US Tennis Association National Campus in Florida. About 20 miles east of Walt Disney World, this is the training location for a dozen tennis professionals.

“Obviously it's a personal subject that even with people you might feel very comfortable with — in my mind, at least for a long time — you didn't. [something] to just blurt out as part of a conversation, you know?” said Brooksby, 24, a native Californian who said he was nonverbal until he was 4. “But I've always thought about it and… I In the end, I just wanted to talk about it.”

As a child, he said, he spent about 40 hours a week with therapists “to even start talking… [and] to then become better at communication and social situations.”

Brooksby called the autism a “great strength” during “pressure moments” on the field, allowing him to “focus very well on two or three specific details for a long period of time.” He also mentioned “something that makes [tennis] a little harder': He will have outbursts when he is losing or is angry about a particular shot or aspect of his technique, a tendency that his athletic trainer, Paul Kinney, watches for, along with signs of discomfort such as reaching for his clothes or hair , or lean forward with hands on knees.

After presenting as a “very severe case” as a child, Brooksby is now “on the very mild end of the spectrum,” according to Michelle Wagner, a board-certified behavior analyst whose specialty is autism spectrum disorders. She said she first started working with Brooksby when he was 2 years and 9 months and was diagnosed by others; The progress he made, Wagner said, is an “unusual and unique outcome.”

Brooksby was given an initial 18-month ban by the International Tennis Integrity Agency in October 2023. He was not accused of testing positive for a controlled substance, but instead failed to appear for three drug tests within a 12-month period. month period. According to the ITIA's initial report, his side argued that the miscommunication with a doping control official who tried to find him at a hotel in the Netherlands “was not due to any negligence on the part of the police”. [the player’s] part.”

He appealed, and he and the ITIA agreed to a reduced sentence, making him eligible for return in March 2024 instead of January 2025. The ITIA said his “degree of guilt … should be reassessed” because “new information regarding the circumstances giving rise to the missed tests.” The ITIA never disclosed what that new information was; a spokesperson declined to comment on the matter on Wednesday.

But Wagner said the call included her input. She oversaw Brooksby's treatment plan until he was six, including language development and age-appropriate self-help skills, such as dressing alone or preparing a backpack for school.

As part of the call, Wagner said, she explained how autism affects Brooksby's decision-making as an adult and leads to what she called “a lack of executive functioning,” meaning he has difficulty understanding that “if I do this , that maybe if I don't do this, then [certain other things] could happen.”

Brooksby has been off the tennis tour for almost two full years. He plans to return to the lower-level Challenger Tour in Canberra, Australia, next month before heading to the Australian Open, which starts on January 12. It was there, in January 2023, that Brooksby upset three-time Grand Slam runner-up Casper Ruud. Two days later, Brooksby lost to eventual semifinalist Tommy Paul.

That's where the “Activity” portion of Brooksby's ATP Tour record ends. In March he underwent surgery on his left wrist for the first time. He then had surgery on his right wrist in May. Then the ban.

“There were just several bad things happening at the same time,” he said. “It was a lot to take mentally.”

After the suspension, Brooksby did not play immediately, partly because of shoulder pain when he resumed batting and partly because he was putting together a new team. He is now with coaches Eric Nunez and Rhyne Williams, along with Kinney, who was previously with him in 2022.

Kinney said Brooksby has been training to improve his body, including his posture, and parts of his game, including his serve.

“It's hard to say what the ceiling is. He can be a top-10 player,” Nunez said. “He only has one gear when he's participating in something, and that's full mode.”

Brooksby, whose best result at a major tournament was reaching the fourth round at the 2021 US Open where he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets, said it took some time to get used to the idea of ​​being open about his autism.

“I just want people to know me completely for who I am, and that's just a different part of me,” he said.