Jenson Brooksby, 21, revealed it was the Big Three he loved to watch as a kid. Brooksby, who is considered as one of the brightest talents in American tennis, has made three ATP finals over the last year but he has yet to win his first title.
After realizing how tough it is to win on the Tour, Brooksby says he now even more respects Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – who have dominated the game for the past two decades. “When I was young, it was the Top 3 guys I liked to watch: Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.
When I was younger, I didn’t really understand what it took to be that good consistent over the course of those years as I do now, though. I really appreciate that work ethic now,” Brooksby told the ATP Tour website.
“I respect it even more with how consistently they do what they do to get where they are at. And they have done it for over a decade and I am trying to learn from them. My team and I are really big in doing what we believe in, but my coach watches them and sees what he thinks they do best and I can learn from that”.
Brooksby on his lone meeting against a Big Three member
At the US Open last year, Brooksby got his first crack at a Big Three member. In the US Open last-16, Brooksby got off to a stunning start versus Djokovic, winning the first set with a 6-1 score.
But Djokovic easily recovered from a slow start to beat Brooksby 1-6 6-3 6-2 6-2. “Playing Djokovic was an amazing experience. It was a high level of tennis for a good amount of the match,” Brooksby recalled. “I had played three physical matches before that and then had a fourth one against him too.
I just saw how tough it is physically to produce that kind of tennis and he is amazing at. That comes from all the discipline of how hard you train and eating correctly and pushing yourself and moments like that are when those results will show”.
