Tennis pro Jenson Brooksby kept quiet for a long time. Now everyone should know what’s going on with him.
In January, Jenson Brooksby will return to the tennis tour after a good two years. Before that, the US pro has a message for colleagues and fans: Brooksby is autistic. Since he was a small child, he has been struggling with the neurological developmental disorder.
He did not speak until the age of four, Brooksby now told the AP news agency. He spent almost 40 hours a week with therapists to even start talking and then learn how to behave in certain situations.
So far, he has always been ashamed of it, but now he wants everyone to know. “It’s just something I don’t want to keep to myself anymore,” said the 24-year-old, who was already ranked 33rd in the world in the summer of 2022.
Illness one of the reasons for missed doping tests?
But then Brooksby’s fortunes went downhill. Because he missed three doping tests, he was banned for 18 months in October 2023. After an appeal, the ban was reduced by five months – because of “new information about the circumstances that led to the missed tests,” as it was stated at the time.
Brooksy’s representatives had also cited his illness as a reason, saying that he was not always able to understand the consequences of his actions. On the tennis court, the illness is sometimes a curse and sometimes a blessing. On the one hand, he can concentrate extremely well on certain things in certain situations. On the other hand, there are always emotional outbursts that he simply cannot control.