Webb School of Knoxville’s Jansen Brown is the 2025 5Star Preps Boys Tennis Player of the Year, presented by Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic. (Photo by Danny Parker/5Star Preps)
BY DAVE LINK
Webb School of Knoxville’s Jansen Brown doesn’t mind facing the state’s best competition in high school tennis.
Quite the contrary.
Brown, who just completed his freshman season, says playing for Webb against Division II-AA opponents – other private schools, including boarding schools that recruit internationally – has its benefits.
“It’s really tough,” Brown said. “It’s obviously hard to win matches, but it’s also making our whole team better and teaching us how to be better as well.
“We might not win state or do anything like that, but it makes us better as players and as a team.”
Brown, the 5Star Preps Player of the Year, lost to only two players this high school season – Henry Imorde of Chattanooga McCallie and Arya Kallambella of Chattanooga Baylor. Imorde and Kallambella are 2025 graduates.
Webb School of Knoxville’s Jansen Brown (Photo by Danny Parker)
Brown posted singles victories against top players from Catholic (twice, different players), Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), Memphis University School (MUS), Brentwood High, and teams from the Tri-Cities area.
At one weekend tournament, while playing for Webb, Brown had wins over MUS, MBA, and Brentwood High.
“He’s got some great wins this season,” Webb coach Jim Pitkanen said. “That was a huge weekend for him.”
Brown, however, was forced to withdraw from the TSSAA Division II-AA postseason singles because of a strained back, which he hurt late in the season while playing the USTA State 16-Unders in Murfreesboro.
Two days after straining his back, Brown tried to play a regular-season match against Chattanooga Baylor and didn’t finish, instead resting it for the Division II-AA team quarterfinals May 17.
In that match, Webb’s boys lost to MBA 4-0, but Brown was leading his No. 1 singles match 6-3, 4-2 when the Big Red clinched.
It was a tough loss for the Spartans, who lost the doubles but had leads on all three of the singles matches still playing when MBA clinched.
“If we had won the doubles,” Pitkanen said, “we had a good chance of winning that match.”
Brown, who missed about 3 months last summer with a back injury, is fine now.
“I figured out what works for me, physically for my back, with the help of my parents and physical therapist Michael Blair at Simply Physio,” Brown said July 11. “They helped me a lot. I’m pretty much playing every day.”
In late June, Brown reached the round-of-16 singles at the Southern 16-unders, one of five or six high-level USTA tournaments he will play this summer.
His parents, Peter and Paige Brown, play a big role in his tennis career and beyond.
“They’re a huge influence in my life, really, and my tennis life, too,” Jansen said. “They fully support all that I’m doing. They drive me to all these places and pay for everything that I do, which is really nice, and also they expect a lot, like attitude and effort-wise. They expect the fullest, and that’s pretty much what I do in return for them, do what I love to do pretty much every day.”
Brown’s brother, Will, will be an eighth grader at Webb this fall, and the two brothers are close.
“Me and my brother, we’re brothers for life, you know,” Jansen said. “He likes baseball a little more (than tennis) right now but I’m trying to get him to play some tennis as well.”
Brown, who’s about 5-foot-8, 140 pounds, often finds himself playing high school matches against older, more physically imposing players, but he doesn’t mind.
Plus, he’s still growing.
“In tennis, you don’t have to be a big guy or anything, which certainly helps,” he said.
Pitkanen knows Brown’s game well, having taught him tennis lessons from the start.
Pitkanen said Brown’s natural tennis IQ, along with his speed and quickness, are some of his biggest assets on the court.
“First of all, he’s got a great instinct for the game, an incredible instinct for how to play the game, one of the top three that I’ve ever coached,” Pitkanen said. “Just knowing what the game looks like and how to play it.
“He’s very quick, but I’m telling you, the instincts for hitting it, and he’s one of the most coachable kids I’ve ever been around. You don’t have to tell him to do something twice.”
And Brown has the potential to make all the shots.
“He’s developing them,” Pitkanen said. “He’s getting better at coming in (to the net), which is really his game. He’s got a great set of hands on him. His volleys are exceptional. Just getting a feel of when to come in, where to put the ball, he’s learning that.”
As of July 12, Brown was ranked No. 2 in Tennessee, No. 57 in the Southeast, and No. 178 nationally among Class of 2028 players by tennisrecruting.net.
Brown plays USTA tournaments all year and looks forward to playing for Webb when high school season gets going – even if it coincides with USTA events.
“My goal is to play in college, so the team aspect of high school tennis is awesome,” Brown said. “I’ve been taking (lessons) from coach Jimmy since I could walk, and I’ve always wanted to play tennis at Webb. I’ve looked up to tons of other guys who have come through Webb, and that’s what I wanted to do.”
Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic (KOC) is the proud sponsor of 5Star Preps 2025 Spring Sports Postseason Coverage.