This year’s Delray Beach Open features a total of seven top 50 players on the men’s tour, but the person attracting the most attention is an 18-year-old who had never played an ATP Tour match prior to this week.
Brandon Nakashima announced two months ago that he would be turning professional after enjoying a successful college career. As a junior, he peaked at a high of 4th in the world and won the 2018 ITF Junior Masters. Since then he had been steadily building on his form on the Challenge circuit that has helped him rise to a current ranking high of 294th in the world.
Gaining momentum on the tour, Nakashima’s talent has already caught the attention of some of his rivals. Former Australian Open quarter-finalist Frances Tiafoe recently described him as ‘special’ following their clash at a Challenger tournament in Dallas last month.
“Watch out for this guy. This guy’s special,” Tiafoe told atptour.com. “I like his game, I like his demeanour. Great backhand, good serve and he’s level-headed… I’m a fan, for sure.”
Starting his Delray Beach debut against Jiri Vesely, the rising star eased to a 7-6(4), 6-1, victory earlier this week. His first ever on the ATP Tour. Then on Wednesday he continued his run with a surprise 7-5, 6-2, win over world No.60 Cameron Norrie. In his latest clash Nakashima won 71% of his service points and broke Norrie four times to book a place in the quarter-finals. Becoming the youngest player to do so since Kei Nishikori back in 2008.
“I was just hoping to play a good match in the first round,” Nakashima said. “After winning these two matches, I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my game, and hopefully I continue playing well. I always knew I had the game to compete with these high-level pros, and I just needed the opportunity.”
Guiding Nakashima for the first time this week is former player Pat Cash, as well as coach Beau Treyz. Cash, who is best known for winning the 1987 Wimbledon Championships, had never witnessed the American play in person before the tournament. The original plan was for them to have a training block together in California before Nakashima received a wild card to play in Delray Beach.
“It’s nice to work with a kid who’s very keen, focussed and has a lot of talent,” Cash told atptour.com. “I’m just getting to know him, but I’ve been very impressed with his mentality. He’s very good under pressure, wins a lot of tie-breakers. He was just looking forward to the match [on Monday] and knew there was a possibility he could get the win.”
It remains to be seen how good the Next Gen star can be over the coming years. Cash believes that he needs to find ‘something special’ to help him stand out from the crowd. So far in his career, Nakashima has won two Future titles with those of those occurring last month. He also reached the semi-finals of two Challenger tournaments during 2019.
“He’s got a lot of developing to do. He’s got good technique and is very solid on the baseline. Now he needs to develop a big shot, a bit more power, and keep getting fitting and stronger,” Cash assessed. “There are a lot of good players out there who play like him, so now he needs to find something a bit special. That’s what we’ll be working on.”
Nakashima will play Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarter-finals.
