US OPEN

September 3, 2022

Jenson Brooksby

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/J. Brooksby

6-3, 6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Tough day. Your thoughts.

JENSON BROOKSBY: Yeah, first I'd like to congratulate Carlos on a good match. I think he's a great player, competitor. I think he'll go far.

From my end, I'm pretty disappointed with how my play and my focus on what I need to do out there and execution. I thought my physicality could have been better. I thought my execution and a couple part of my games I have been working a lot on I didn't do well today, and it feels terrible, you know, that I didn't do that. Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Playing a guy like him, seems like you have to hit three or four winners to get a point. Does the level of frustration come in? You were hitting a lot of shots, points, against most people probably would have ended it, but he was getting everything back.

JENSON BROOKSBY: A little bit. He's a great athlete and he'll get a lot of balls back.

I just think most of the disappointment lies on my performance today. You know, congrats to him, though.

Q. What do you think you did well today? You say you're disappointed. What are you disappointed with?

JENSON BROOKSBY: I mean, I don't like to give away exactly what I'm working on on my game, so I can't really answer that for you.

I mean, a couple of the biggest things in my game that I've been working on for a while now, I didn't execute very well. It's pretty frustrating on a stage like this to not be able to do that.

Sorry. What was your other part?

Q. What you did well.

JENSON BROOKSBY: I mean, I thought I competed pretty well today for most of the match, but even then there was still too many lapses like in the third set. Once I got the double break, even once it's back to 3-4 it's still on even terms in that set. I did a bad job with that the last two games.

But in general I think I'm on the right track with my competing at least and my energy. It's just something I have to keep working on every day.

Q. The slam season for you unfortunately is over now, but there is still some season left. What would be a successful year for you? In terms of by the end of the year, what would you consider to make this year successful? Has it been that way already?

JENSON BROOKSBY: I mean, I think it's been a solid year. I wouldn't say it's been a great year or bad year. A lot of building blocks, I think.

Really, for success in terms of the rest of the year, it's not really a ranking-based for me. I think it's more of a process-based, and how well I can just mentally focus on what I need to work on every day type of thing.

I think that would really show the results on the court. So in terms of ranking I can't really answer that. But obviously I want to be able to get at least a title under my belt to start, and just consistently keep producing good results, which I know I'm capable of. But, yeah, I just have to get back to work now.

Q. Could you talk just a little bit more about processing. In particular you seem to really enjoy the practice in Sacramento, being home, working on your game. Just talk about the joy of that process. I presume you're still at Arden Hills.

JENSON BROOKSBY: Yeah, I am. I mean, it's always a fun, competitive culture back home.

I guess I could say the biggest thing I want to see is on our road trips, I know we go to Europe later in the year, on the road trips I just want to be able to see what we've learned, now I made those mistakes on the road, and have that be fixed. See if I can get good results over the course of being gone like four, five weeks, for instance, rather than usually early on when I'm gone I have better results because I have had better training myself and it's faded off.

So I want to be able to do those same things on the road now that we know what to do and then see if I can get those results once I'm gone three, four, five weeks.

Q. Alcaraz has a lot of shots from all sorts of places. Can you describe the process of playing someone with that array of weapons?

JENSON BROOKSBY: Yeah, I mean, you know, I knew what I needed to go out there and do in terms of a strategy from my end, and, you know, he's a physical, strong player. I wasn't able to dictate the points to the strategy that I wanted to. You know, I'm not going to be able to get the results I'm looking for if I can't do that.

I mean, I'm sure my coach will definitely have some things he'll tell me, and if we were to play him next time again or regardless, mostly for myself. Yeah, I think it's simple.

Q. You alluded to the third set. You got up 3-Love, the breaks, crowd was going nuts. What happened in the next five, ten minutes to get him the momentum back and get the breaks back?

JENSON BROOKSBY: Yeah, at 3-0, I had a letdown game, which is understandable, but still, I mean, I still don't believe that should happen. But it did, and I don't think I reacted to that very well. I knew his energy would come back up, he'd be more excited to get back in the set, and I knew I had to stay on top of it and keep competing.

But I think from like that 3-2 on standpoint I was getting too frustrated in myself for not doing the things in my game right rather than just competing to win at that point, and I knew that's what I should have done. I didn't, and it showed in that turnaround there.