Brooksby, Liu named Team USA Players of the Month - April

Who says California can’t be an incubator of clay-court talent? 

Jenson Brooksby and Claire Liu—both 20-year-old native Californians—earned April’s Team USA Player of the Month honors because of their professional breakthroughs during the USTA Pro Circuit’s Har-Tru green-clay season. 

READ MORE: Jenson Brooksby's historic 2021 ATP Challenger Tour season

Brooksby, who grew up in the Sacramento area, coached by Joseph Gilbert, went a perfect 10-0 in consecutive Challengers at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., and in Tallahassee, Fla., the next week. The 2018 USTA Boys’ 18s national champion improved his ranking from No. 231 to No. 166 in April alone, and if there were a Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge this year, he’d likely find himself with a main draw wild card into the French Open. 

Meanwhile Liu (pictured above), the Thousand Oaks native who is currently coached by Chris Tontz, won her first pro singles title above the 25-level at the W60 in Charlottesville, Va. It was the 2017 Wimbledon girls’ champion’s fifth pro singles title—her fourth on clay—and it came on the heels of Liu qualifying and reaching the second round at the MUSC Health Women’s Open WTA 250 in Charleston, S.C.

Other highlight performances from American pros in April include: 

• A number of American women won WTA doubles titles in April: 
  • Jennifer Brady won the first of her career at the 500 in Stuttgart.
  • Nicole Melichar won the 10th of her career and second of 2021 at the Volvo Car Open 500 in Charleston, S.C.
    
  • Ingrid Neel won her career first at the WTA 250 in Bogota, Colombia.
    
  • Hailey Baptiste and Caty McNally won their first together—Baptiste’s first-ever and McNally’s third—at the MUSC Health Women’s Open WTA 250 in Charleston, S.C.

• Jack Sock and Mitchell Krueger won the Orlando Challenger doubles title.

• Former Florida Gator Oliver Crawford won an M15 singles title in Cairo, Egypt, his second pro singles title of 2021. 

• Former Michigan Wolverine Emina Bektas a W25 doubles title in Dubai.

• Former UNC Tar Heel Jessie Aney won her first two ITF World Tennis Tour titles at W15 events in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.