I watched an interesting match yesterday: Jenson Brooksby vs Felix Auger-Aliassime. Brooksby was spectacular and won 6-3 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime was spraying forehands in the first set, which is a scene that is not entirely uncommon. He has such a weapon of a forehand, but his impressive racquet head speed can sometimes lead to some gnarly mishits where the ball is almost sent out of the stadium. Something that is rare to see at this level. Jenson Brooksby, on the other hand, seems to have more of a home-cooked technique. A double-handed backhand volley, not the most elegant stroke mechanic, but can hit pretty much every shot in the book and has a good tennis mind for tactical plays. Check out Jenson Brooksby’s profile page on the ATP Tour website.
Both Auger-Aliassime and Brooksby are born in 2000 and both are 1.93 m or 6’4″. They are a part of a wave of new players coming for titles in 2021: Jannik Sinner, Sebastian Korda, Lorenzo Musetti, Brandon Nakashima, Holger Rune and Carlos Alcaraz. All highly dangerous players on the higher levels of the ATP tour despite their young age. It will be interesting to watch most of them compete in the Next-Gen Finals in Milan later this year (Sinner can even qualify for the ATP Finals).
Jenson Brooksby’s racquet
What racquet is Brooksby using? Judging by what you see on the screen, it looks like a retail Wilson Blade 98 (based on the matte paint, but could of course be a Blade 98 pro stock) strung with a red string that I have a hard time figuring out what it is (red strings are rare on tour). Babolat RPM Blast Rough? Tecnifibre Red Code? If you have any information about Brooksby’s racquet that you would like to share, please comment below or reach out to me on Instagram or via our Contact Us page.
Digging up some old pictures it seems like he has used a Blade for most of his tennis-playing life, so perhaps it is an older Blade painted to look like a new one.
No matter what racquet he uses, a fun guy to watch with a slightly unorthodox playing style and lots of game.
6 comments
Brooksby carries a Solinco racket bag and has a Solinco stencil so I would guess he is using Outlast.
I think he’s using Solinco Outlast strings.
As for his strings, he appears to be sponsored by Solinco, as Solinco cites in several places on their site:
http://solincosports.com/barb-wire/
http://solincosports.com/juniors/
(interestingly, they also say Donald Young uses Tour Bite – wasn’t Hyper G developed for him?)
And he appears to have the Solinco (rather than Wilson) stencil on his strings:
https://images.tennis.com/image/private/t_16-9_1920/f_auto/v1628282406/tenniscom-prd/k2gvucirpswfofvn1src.jpg
Solinco says he uses Barb Wire. The citations on Solinco’s site look old, but Outlast does comes in red.
Of course, those would be unusual choices for a pro – but that might fit well with many other aspects of Brooksby’s game for which “unorthodox” appears to be emerging as the standard description.
I’ve been watching the kid at Citi Open in D.C.
He just lost to Jannick Sinner in 2 sets
Jensen is very hard nosed and willing to grind. Big kid but doesn’t have a big serve.
Bigger serve and more refinement in his game and he will be a fixture on tour
He does use Solinco string. His Solinco rep linked him up with Beach Tennis in Lomita CA, and it is Beach Tennis that customizes his rackets.
Jenson uses Wilson Blade v8 the latest version right now and he has been a long time user of Solinco Outlast – I have a handful of his personally signed rackets. If you want to buy one, just message me – [email protected]