For years, he travelled to small tournaments across Europe in his van, eating and sleeping in it to cut down on his expenses as he tried to make it as a player.
Here, at his first US Open, Brown on Friday has a second-round match against Andy Murray, a former finalist at Flushing Meadows who spoke over the summer of wanting to sell his blood-red Ferrari as "you could say that it's a poseur's car". He has felt uncomfortable drawing attention to himself when he stops at traffic lights or steps out of it in parking lots.
There is no chance of Brown ever wanting to be permanently separated from his beloved VW, even though he has reached the full tour, and this summer made his first appearance at Wimbledon, where he lost in the first round.
"There are so many memories and hard things I've been through with that camper, so I'm definitely keeping it," said Brown, who was born in Germany, and is still based there, in a small town outside Hannover.
Brown has put in the hours, on court and behind the wheel, to get where he is today, to play Murray, though there is a chance that their match could be delayed by the arrival of Hurricane Earl on America's eastern seaboard.
Here are a couple of things that Murray and Brown have in common. They do not have permanent coaches with them in New York, as Murray decided that he would be better off without Miles Maclagan, while Brown cannot afford one. And they have each relied on support from their mothers.
Murray's mother, Judy, is here in America and scouted Brown's first-round match, and it was Brown's mum, Inge, who thought of buying that camper-van.
Dustin was not receiving much help from the Jamaican tennis federation, and Brown's mother reportedly said that it was when she was sitting on a beach, drinking a beer, and staring out into the ocean, that she thought of buying him the vehicle. "Maybe God told me a van would be the answer for everything," she said. "It was."
Brown, who has said that an English grandmother could allow him to possibly represent Britain in the Davis Cup, has said that the van had been "my last chance".
Here are a few things that Murray and Brown do not have in common. The Scot does not have dreadlocks, or fluorescent shoelaces, with neon orange for one trainer and lime green for the other. And Brown likes to serve-and-volley, or to chop and chip his forehand, to get into net whenever he can. He is a man with a van and a plan.
Brown, who is 6ft 5in before he even puts on those acid-house shoes, has other quirks. During his straight-sets victory against Spaniard Rubens Ramirez Hidalgo on Wednesday, he kept asking for his ball back whenever he had just hit a big ace or a fine winner, and also chose to spend some of the changeovers standing up.
To show he did not agree with one line-call, he did not scream and shout, he cackled. It looked as though Brown was having fun on court, that the world No 123 was enjoying his tennis, which is not always something that you could accuse Murray of.
If Murray were to end up playing Roger Federer in the final a week on Sunday, that would create what could appear to be a conflict of interests for Paul Annacone.
Though Annacone has been "integrated" into Federer's team, the American coach is still contracted to work for the Lawn Tennis Association part-time until at least November.
Annacone said that while he was here for the LTA when the pre-tournament qualifying matches were being played, this fortnight he was on Federer's time, as these were "Roger weeks".
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, Murray must beat the dude with a van.
telegraph.co.uk
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Wrong, he's german
Koolboy111111 1 week ago
if you want to know where he was born and grew up just watch
/watch?v=rmMHTWHQb6k&feature=related
pararesis 6 months ago
according to wikipedia, the australian open page, the ITF page and the ATP page, he was born in Celle, Germany ...
meisterfellfrosch 9 months ago
@meisterfellfrosch he wasnt but he plays for germany and lives there
klotzinatorinho 9 months ago
@CarlieGuss we have a national foreign debt of over 1 trillion dollars, so while we may wanna support him we simply just cant, we broke yo
MrVizionary2012 10 months ago
Brown ty skurrrrrwysynu!
wojciechpaluska 11 months ago
australianopen [dot] com/en_AU/players/overview/atpba65.html
they say he was even born in germany
meisterfellfrosch 1 year ago
@eKh79 His family left when he was 11, as much as I know. Funny and sweet he still has that typical German accent.
Miguel53de 1 year ago
Close the eyes and listen to his English. You would think he is a German. Very sympatic and hopefully going forward. He is somebody the Germans need to have into their Tennis world,
Miguel53de 1 year ago
@Miguel53de
I think he grew up in Germany.
eKh79 1 year ago