by Hanlon Walsh
Seven was American Jenson Brooksby’s lucky number this week at River Oaks. The qualifying wildcard entrant, ranked No. 507 at the beginning of the week, won seven consecutive matches to claim his first ATP Tour title at the 2025 Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships.
In Sunday’s singles final, Brooksby defeated No. 2 seed Frances Tiafoe in a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 victory, extending his career head-to-head over Tiafoe 3-0. Most of Brooksby’s wins this week, however, were anything but straightforward.
Throughout the week, he fought off five match points in three of his seven matches: one in his opening round qualifying match, three in his second-round match against No. 3 seed Alejandro Tabilo, and one in his semifinal match against top seed Tommy Paul. In doing so, Brooksby became only the eighth player since 2015 to match points in multiple matches en route to winning the title.
“It means a lot to come away with a title here. I think it's been the best week of my life, to be honest. You know, I hadn't won any of my three previous ATP Finals, and those were all three years ago. One of my biggest goals in my comeback was to win my first title. So I wasn't trying to think about it too much as I was getting closer and closer to the finish line, but I’m really happy that I’m walking away with the trophy.” - Jenson Brooksby
Brooksby shattered several US Clay and ATP records throughout his Cinderella championship journey this week. He is only the second US Clay champion in Open Era history, dating back to 1972, to defeat each of the top three seeds on his way to the championship: No. 1 Paul, No. 2 Tiafoe, and No. 3 Tabilo.
Brooksby is also the first qualifier to become US Clay champion since Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in 2000 and the lowest-ranked champion in the tournament’s Open era history. He is projected to reach No. 172 in next week's ATP rankings with the title under his belt, climbing over 300 spots from start to finish this week.
After undergoing multiple wrist surgeries that sidelined him from the pro tour for several years, Brooksby is eager to continue climbing and surpass his previous career high of No. 33, which he reached in 2022.
“It's huge. I mean, you try not to think too much about rankings, but you have to have some level of awareness and ranking goals since that can determine your next tournaments. My main goal for this year is to beat my previous career high ranking, 33, and eventually start getting into the bigger tournaments automatically. I’m a lot closer to that point now than I was this time last week, which makes me really excited.” - Jenson Brooksby
Tiafoe, the 2023 US Clay champion and a two-time US Clay finalist (2025, 2024), was the fourth player to reach three consecutive US Clay finals, and the first since Andy Roddick (2001-2005). He has also won 10 of his last 12 matches in Houston.
Tiafoe was understandably disappointed in Sunday’s result and his performance but also gave Brooksby full credit and still managed to find some positives from his week in Houston.
“I served pretty poorly today and overall I don't think I played well, but it happens. Nerves probably had something to do with it as well; I was slow and sloppy. At the end of the day, if you’re playing on Sunday, that’s always a good problem to have. You’ve got to tip your hat off to Jenson - he knocked all of us out and played so many long matches this week. I’m still taking a lot of positives from this week. It was great to win three matches in a row and I hope I can continue this momentum heading into the Europe clay swing.” - Frances Tiafoe
With his first ATP trophy on his resume, Brooksby became the first American male to win an ATP title of 2025. Now one of the 22 Americans in the top 200, if Brooksby keeps up his fine Houston form, soon enough he could be back in the top 35 where he was just a few years ago.
“I mean, I'd like to keep climbing and beat all of my accomplishments in the first chapter of my career. During that time, I was 0-3 in career finals and now I’ve just won my first ATP title three months after coming back to tour. If I can keep up this consistency, why couldn’t I beat my old ranking or go even higher? That would be amazing.” - Jenson Brooksby
The 2026 Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship will be held on March 28-April 5, 2026 at River Oaks Country Club.
