Brooksby undergoes wrist surgery after playing it for two years, set for 10-12 weeks off court

Jenson Brooksby underwent arthroscopic left wrist surgery on Tuesday in California to repair his tendon subsheath. The American’s tendon was 100 per cent dislocated.

The successful surgery, performed by Dr. Steven Shin, will keep Brooksby off court for 10 to 12 weeks. He plans to use the time to work on other areas of his game and be fully ready once healthy enough to return to tennis.

“I knew it was something that was pretty bad and I’d have to miss some time,” Brooksby said. “I tried to take the conservative route with it but it was to no avail. There was still a lot of pain and it’s the last option, so it’s just what I have to do now.”

The injury has bothered Brooksby for two years, but it has been getting worse since December. When he played Cameron Norrie in Auckland, the American was forced to slice his backhand throughout the second set. Brooksby did not hit backhands again until the day before his first-round match at the Australian Open.

The 22-year-old’s team told him to withdraw from the season’s first Grand Slam, but after missing the 2022 Australian Open following a positive Covid-19 test, Brooksby wanted to compete. He went on to upset second seed Casper Ruud in the second round.

When Brooksby returned to the United States after losing in the third round, he visited Dr. Shin in Los Angeles. He then went to Florida, where he trained and saw another doctor twice, before she advised surgery was the proper route to follow. Brooksby then returned to California to undergo the operation with Dr. Shin.

“Of course having to do the last option sucks. But I think the only way to look at it is that the glass is half full. I need to focus on the things I can control right now, which is find a good coach and team around me and get certain areas of my body better, footwork, things like that,” said Brooksby, who recently parted ways with longtime coach Joseph Gilbert. “[This is] so that once the wrist is healthy and I’m ready to get back on court, everything else will have made a lot of progress. From there it’s just feeling the wrist in [my] tennis.”