On my way to catch the Jenson Brooksby-Evgeny Donskoy match on Stadium Court, I saw Brooksby warming up on the side court closest to the stadium and stopped to watch for a couple minutes. Brooksby, a three-time Challenger winner this year, was returning the serve of a player I didn’t recognize. He wasn’t having much luck with it — all of the serves were going out wide to Brooksby’s forehand, and though his wrist flick looked incredibly powerful, the returns were mostly short or into the net. When an easy volley winner was plonked off a Brooksby return, it made me consider how disheartening it must be to be successfully serve-and-volleyed against. Brooksby had leapt to his right and put his whole arm into the return, but in less than a second, the return had been casually disposed of. I wondered if the 20-year-old Brooksby was struggling to get used to returning on grass. But just before I left, Brooksby fired a perfect crosscourt forehand return winner past his practice partner when he tried to serve and volley again. 

The players each got a nice hand as they walked out, despite the surprisingly still-empty stands. Blair Henley did a great job of introducing the players, and the crowd seemed to pick up the same enthusiasm. 

During the warmup, I was impressed at Brooksby’s ability to cleanly time balls on the rise. He had to do it a few times since Donskoy was sailing shots long early. Henley ran through the players’ accomplishments as they knocked the ball back and forth, and I kept a close eye on their faces for a flicker of emotion, but they remained impassive, even when Henley mentioned Donskoy’s win over Federer in Dubai from match points down.

The crowd was nearly silent when Donskoy won the first point of the match with a great crosscourt forehand, which shocked me. They were barely louder when Brooksby hit three consecutive service winners after that. Despite the stadium being far from having every seat filled, there had to be over one hundred people there. The stadium was extremely close to literal silence a few times. Over the course of the match, the stadium would fill up gradually.

Brooksby defended some brutal crosscourt backhands from Donskoy on his first return point, then smacked a forehand pass when his opponent’s approach hit the net tape and sat up. The crowd enjoyed that.

Watching live is such a different experience from watching on TV. You hear each step the players take, and since you’re not far away, you can see just how much ground they have to cover. “Balletic” doesn’t seem like an annoyingly exaggeratory adjective for the players’ movement anymore. You notice the linespeople set up on the service lines and baselines, and how loud they are when declaring “OUT!” You hear other fans talking during the points, and gasping at some of the cleaner ballstriking, which sounds incredibly crisp. 

You notice the players’ mannerisms, like Brooksby’s repeated cries of “C’mon!” when he wins a point, and Donskoy’s small shakes of the head when he loses one. You notice the shapes and colors of the boxes that hold the players’ towels (they’re rectangular. One is green and one is brown).

The fourth game of the match was intense. Donskoy let loose with some massive forehands — these ones flew through the air in a linear path with wicked speed and purpose, thudding into the back wall — then Brooksby ripped a huge first serve return that set up a simple backhand winner at net. Donskoy held after a forehand winner. 

Brooksby got the loudest ovation of the match so far in the fifth game with a slick drop shot winner (I heard a fan nearby say “finesse” in appreciation). 

Donskoy seemed to be putting more zip on his groundstrokes, but Brooksby’s defense and his inability to sustain low-margin offense gave Brooksby the first break point of the match at 3-2. Donskoy saved it with a 112 mph service winner out wide, which doesn’t seem particularly big on TV but looks huge in person. On the next break point, Donskoy slammed a 114 mph ace down the middle. 

Just as I had the thought that Donskoy should go for more backhands down the line, he tried one and missed it well wide from an offensive position at 2-3, deuce. Brooksby broke serve on his fourth break point, forcing an error with a forehand down the line and roaring his approval.

The longest rally of the match so far took place at 4-2, 30-15 on Brooksby’s serve: a pleasing backhand-to-backhand exchange that ended when Brooksby went to the slice, pushing Donskoy out to his forehand side and then landing a crosscourt approach on the baseline, forcing an error.

While the crosscourt backhands were admirable in their consistency, each player’s inability to change direction with that stroke stuck out to me. Soon after the long rally, Brooksby tried a backhand down the line (barely inside-out) and hit it into the bottom quarter of the net.

Brooksby’s return practice had paid off — Donskoy was hitting a few service winners, but nearly every time Brooksby missed a return, it was off a good serve. 

Brooksby unfurled the drop shot again at 5-3 up, hitting the same one he had earlier: a backhand to Donskoy’s forehand side. He then hit his best serve of the match at 15-all, a 110 mph that kissed the T. Donskoy started to up the power on his forehands after that, and consecutive points brought him to 30-40, his first break point of the match. Brooksby double faulted and immediately challenged, prompting a quiet, uncoordinated clap from the crowd. The call stood, putting the set back on serve.

Donskoy held authoritatively to 15, and it was at this point that I remembered he was eleven years older than Brooksby. The savvy veteran had been given some unexpected momentum and knew exactly what to do with it. 

Donskoy nailed a beautiful crosscourt forehand return winner at the start of the 5-all game, but missed a drop shot, prompting an annoyed “Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet!” from the 31-year-old Russian.

At 5-6, 40-love, Donskoy double faulted, which I didn’t think much of. 40-love is the best time to double fault, after all. But he immediately followed it with another, then missed a first serve at 40-30. Unsurprisingly, his second was meek, and Brooksby leapt on it, crushing a backhand return winner down the line. Another great backhand return made it set point, which was promptly taken as Donskoy hit long. 

As I went back to the media center to send these thoughts from my Notes app to my laptop, I saw on the big screen that Brooksby had won 94% of points played on his first serve, despite never coming that close to hitting 120 mph with it. The product of precise placement, a grass-influenced bounce, and poor returning.

I got to ask Jenson Brooksby a couple questions after his win, which can be read here.