You can call Brandon Nakashima’s performance on Monday evening a ‘Nakashima Knockout’.

The 20-year-old ousted fellow American Denis Kudla 6-1, 6-1 in 54 minutes to reach the second round of the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com.

The ATP 250 holds fond memories for Nakashima, who reached the quarter-finals in Florida two years ago as an 18-year-old. He will try to advance that far again when he plays seventh seed Adrian Mannarino or British qualifier Liam Broady next.

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Nakashima gave his opponent few opportunities to work his way into points, winning all but one of his second-serve points. The former University of Virginia student-athlete did not face a break point and converted five of the eight opportunities he earned.

In a match that took more than three times longer, Australian John Millman eliminated eighth seed Maxime Cressy of the United States 6-7(2), 7-6(2), 7-6(3) after two hours and 54 minutes.

The serve-and-volleying Cressy put pressure on Millman with his attacking style in the windy conditions throughout the match. But the 32-year-old remained calm under pressure to battle on.

“He’s relentless, massive serve, first and second. [He is] always looking to come forward, whether it’s on his service games or return games. There is an incredible amount of mental application required to get through your service games and then hopefully take those one or two in his,” Millman said. “It was a really challenging match. It was really unfortunate someone had to lose that one.”

Steve Johnson clawed past local resident Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2 after two hours and one minute. The American saved the only break point he faced against the former World No. 5, a two-time major finalist.

In other action, German Oscar Otte reached the second round with a 7-6(8), 6-3 victory against Japanese lefty Yoshihito Nishioka and Italian Andreas Seppi defeated German Peter Gojowczyk 7-5, 6-4.

Carlos Alcaraz is mature beyond his 18 years, which he showed in a comeback win Monday evening at the Rio Open presented by Claro.

Down a lopsided set against a familiar foe in fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar, Alcaraz remained calm. The seventh seed cleaned up his game and showed no fear of taking the initiative in points to rally past Munar 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 for a place in the second round.

Last year in Marbella, where the pair also met on clay, Munar defeated Alcaraz in straight sets. But this time, the younger Spaniard was unrelenting.

After an opening set in which he struggled to find rhythm, Alcaraz broke early in the second set and never looked back. From a stunning lob to a sliding one-handed backhand shovel winner, everything went right for the teen from then on, including fearless forays into the forecourt.

The World No. 29, who is as physically fit as many ATP Tour veterans, lost just three games in the final two sets. He saved 10 of the 13 break points he faced to triumph after two hours and 15 minutes. Fittingly, Alcaraz finished the clash with a perfect backhand drop volley winner.

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Rio de Janeiro will always be a special city for Alcaraz, who upset Albert Ramos-Vinolas there two years ago as a 16-year-old. That victory made him the youngest tour-level match winner since 16-year-old Cristian Garin at Vina del Mar in 2013.

The seventh seed will next play Argentine Federico Delbonis or Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan.

In other Monday action, Spaniard Pedro Martinez eliminated 17-year-old Juncheng Shang 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 43 minutes. Martinez saved all three break points he faced against the former junior World No. 1 and will next play third seed Diego Schwartzman.

Another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, also advanced. In a battle of 36-year-olds, Andujar ousted Pablo Cuevas 7-6(2), 7-5 after two hours and 12 minutes.

Former Top 10 Frenchman Richard Gasquet defeated Mikael Ymer to reach the second round at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, where he will meet World No. 7 Andrey Rublev.

Ymer’s run to the semi-finals in Montpellier two weeks ago included a win over Gael Monfils, but the young Swede was unable to find that level against Gasquet. The Frenchman broke Ymer three times on his way to a 6-4, 7-5 victory at a tournament where he has reached the semi-finals twice before.

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Fifth seed Ilya Ivashka produced a solid performance to defeat Slovakian Norbert Gombos 7-6(5), 6-3. The Belarusian edged the first set tie-break and then stepped up his level to complete the win over World No. 114 Gombos in one hour, 43 minutes.

The Belarusian will hope to improve on his run in Marseille in 2018, when he made the semi-finals as a qualifier. “This tournament was like a starting point of my ATP career, because it was my first great result,” he said after the match with Gombos. “I really enjoy playing here.”

The World No. 49 will now face Stefano Travaglia in the second round, after the Italian beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(1).

Karen Khachanov overpowered World No. 51 Mackenzie McDonald in a tight encounter in the first round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha on Monday.

Both men made few errors in a high-quality match, but the Russian was able to find something extra at key moments to run out a 7-6(3), 6-3 winner in one hour, 25 minutes.

Khachanov has enjoyed a strong start to 2022, reaching the final at the Adelaide International 1 (l. to Monfils) and pushing eventual champion Rafael Nadal to four sets in the third round of the Australian Open in January, and he had to bring his best to his opening-round match.

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World No. 51 McDonald was making his first appearance in Doha but he immediately looked comfortable in his surroundings and proved a tough test for the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters champion.

The match opened with a set of fine margins that was dominated by serve. There were no break points and Khachanov won 87 per cent (26/30) points behind his first delivery, with his American opponent just behind on 86 per cent (18/21). A tie-break was inevitable, and it was Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Khachanov who found more consistency at the end to take it 7/3.

The setback did not deter McDonald, who created the first three break points of the match in the second game of the second set. He could not convert, however, Khachanov showing real quality under pressure to reel off five points and hold, including a delightful drop volley at 30/40.

McDonald was made to pay for not taking his chances, the Russian clinically taking his first break point of the match for a 3-2 lead and the sixth seed looked a lot more settled from then on. He sealed victory by thumping a forehand return winner on match point.

The win moves Khachanov’s ATP Head2Head series lead over McDonald to 3-0. His next opponent will be either Belgian David Goffin or Pune finalist Emil Ruusuvuori.

Elsewhere, Botic van de Zandschulp pulled through a second-set lapse to secure a 6-2, 7-6(5) win over Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano.

The World No. 50 was looking strong at a set and 4-2 up but a series of unforced errors from the Dutchman allowed Fabbiano back into the match. Van de Zandschulp was able to regain his composure in time for the second set tie-break to seal victory and set a second-round clash with fourth seed Marin Cilic.

Soonwoo Kwon marked his Doha debut with a 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-4 victory over American qualifier Christopher Eubanks.

The South Korean was broken three times as he was blown away in the second set, but the 2021 Nur-Sultan champion regathered himself to take the decider, losing only seven points behind his first serve in the match.

Top seed Denis Shapovalov will face World No. 73 Alex Molcan in the second-round after the Slovakian beat another qualifier, Australian Christopher O’Connell, 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-4.

Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni have wasted no time clicking as a team.

Gonzalez and Molteni, who joined forces at last year’s US Open, won their fourth ATP Tour title as a team on Sunday when they defeated Fabio Fognini and Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-1 to triumph at the Argentina Open.

The champions won 53 per cent of their return points and broke serve five times in their 46-minute victory. They did not face a break point against the Italian-Argentine duo.

Gonzalez and Molteni lost just one set en route to the crown. They are now 23-7 together, including title runs in Nut-Sultan and Stockholm last year as well as Cordoba last week.

Fognini and Zeballos were competing together for the first time. Zeballos’s full-time partner is Spaniard Marcel Granollers, with whom he has played in the Nitto ATP Finals twice (2020-21).

Top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer claimed their first ATP Tour title as a team on Sunday when they defeated Briton Lloyd Glasspool and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Dallas Open.

“We’re super happy about this title. This is our first title together. We’ve been doing great things together. We started the year playing great, maybe not having the best results or the results we wanted, but we kept working together as a team, working on those little details,” Arevalo said. “We started seeing those results that we wanted.”

Entering the week, the new tandem was 2-3 on the season. But Arevalo and Rojer did not lose a set in Dallas to lift the trophy.

“We’re hoping to have a good year together. The biggest thing for us is to keep working. We’re a new team, so normally how this goes [is] you put in a lot of work and results come and go, but hopefully we’ll get on a stretch where results start happening for us,” Rojer said. “It certainly did this week.”

Arevalo and Rojer saved all three break points they faced and won 81 per cent of their service points to earn the title after one hour and 27 minutes.

Glasspool and Heliovaara were pursuing their second tour-level trophy together after emerging victorious in Marseille last year.

Casper Ruud is making quite the habit out of picking up trophies.

The World No. 8 followed up his five ATP Tour titles from 2021 with a first of the new season on Sunday as he overcame local favourite Diego Schwartzman to win the Argentina Open for the second time.

The 2020 champion recovered from a first-set lapse to quieten an energised home crowd and seal a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 win in two hours, 35 minutes in Buenos Aires.

The Norwegian was delighted to seal the title after going behind. “[There were] a lot of ups and downs,” he said after the match. “I think it was a good match overall. Diego played very good in the first set and I was struggling to get the important points.

“I think we were both a bit nervous. I just tried to fight and stay in there the whole match because I know how things can change in a tennis match and luckily, they did my way today.”

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Top-seeded Ruud had not dropped a set this week on his way to the championship match, but he found himself in trouble before regaining his composure to see off the dogged Argentine.

A high-quality start saw both players spurn chances to break, most notably when Ruud sent a forehand long after a 42-shot marathon rally on set point that allowed Schwartzman to escape and go on to hold for 5-5.

The miss seemed to linger in the Norwegian’s mind and the Argentine took full advantage in the next game to secure the first break of the final. The World No. 15 went on to serve out for the first set as uncharacteristic errors crept into Ruud’s groundstrokes.

Despite the setback the powerful Norwegian still appeared to have the upper hand in most rallies and was a constant threat on Schwartzman’s serve. The Argentine saved four break points to hold in his opening service game of the second set, but the pressure began to tell as Ruud reeled off four games in a row from 2-2 to level the match.

Despite Schwartzman rallying to reclaim an early break in the decider, his spirit was ultimately not enough to stop Ruud as he finished with aplomb, crushing a forehand winner on match point to reduce the Argentine’s lead in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series to 5-3.

Schwartzman had ended a 13-year wait for an Argentine champion in Buenos Aires with his 2021 title and he fought valiantly to repeat last year’s heroics. The greater power of his opponent’s ball-striking proved too much, however. Ruud created 17 break point opportunities in the match and converted 4 of them.

Ruud was hopeful that the victory would pave the way for more success in 2022. “It means a lot,” he said, “I think this is the perfect start and it will give me confidence for the rest of the season and also for the next weeks when I am here in South America.”

Ruud is now unbeaten after two appearances in Buenos Aires, and Sunday’s win extended the Norwegian’s winning streak in ATP 250 events on clay to 18.

Reilly Opelka put on a serving clinic — even by his own lofty standards — to claim his third ATP Tour title at the Dallas Open.

The second-seeded American did not face a break point en route to the final, and saved the only one he faced Sunday against rapidly rising countryman Jenson Brooksby in a 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory to lift the trophy.

“I thought I played very well under pressure, especially against a great player like Jenson. He makes you very uncomfortable and he took me out of my comfort zone a lot of the match today,” Opelka said during the trophy ceremony. “I really had to play my best tennis to get by and I barely did.”

This is the second time Opelka has won this tournament. He also lifted the trophy in 2019 when the ATP 250 was held on Long Island and known as the New York Open. His other victory came two years ago in Delray Beach. 

It appeared Opelka’s service dominance at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex on the campus of Southern Methodist University might come to an end against the baseline battler Brooksby. The fourth seed earned a break point at 1-1 in the first set and hit a perfect return deep in the court to put pressure on his 6’11” opponent.

But Opelka played tremendous defence before crushing a backhand down the line for a winner. That set the tone of the match for the 24-year-old, who did not face a break point the rest of the way in his one-hour, 52-minute triumph.

“I’m a big fan of his game, a big believer in him. He’s super young and he’s got a lot of tennis ahead of him still,” Opelka said of Brooksby. “The scary thing is he has a lot to even improve on and I think that’s why he’s a future Top 10 player and he’s going to be winning many titles for many years to come.”

Opelka played aggressively from the baseline when he needed to, frustrating Brooksby with his timely shotmaking and incredible movement for a player of his size. And like he did in the semi-finals against John Isner to end the longest tour-level singles tie-break in ATP Tour history (46 points, since 1990), Opelka completed his victory with a backhand passing shot from inside the court.

The champion won all 46 of his service games this week.

“It’s one thing to serve well and have a nice motion, hit your spots and be accurate. But guys guess, so you have to be a pitcher. You have to be thinking a lot,” Opelka said. “If they guess right, you’re in trouble, so you have to think, ‘Where might he be leaning? What patterns have i been giving him? How do I go against the grain here?’ There’s more to it than just having a good serve.”

World No. 54 Brooksby, who this week one year ago was still outside the Top 300 in the ATP Rankings, was trying to clinch his first ATP Tour title. The 21-year-old, who clawed past countryman Marcos Giron in a two-hour, 54-minute slugfest in the semi-finals, fell just short of lifting the trophy. He also reached the championship match in Newport last year.

“I thought I competed better and it’s definitely a really good week to build off of going into the future,” Brooksby said.

At the ninth time of asking, Felix Auger-Aliassime captured his maiden tour-level title at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament.

The Canadian held an 0-8 record in tour-level finals before Sunday, but he produced a dominant performance in Rotterdam to overcome World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets for his first trophy.

ATPTour.com sat down with the 21-year-old right after he triumphed at the ATP 500 tournament to find out more about the significance of his milestone achievement.

What does it mean to you to win your first ATP Tour title?
It is definitely a dream come true. It is something I have been working for and suffering for at times because we all know my story, having lost finals before, so this one is even more special for me.

How did you start playing tennis and what are some of your early memories playing the sport?
I started with my dad. He is a tennis coach and we started as early as I could remember, when I was about four years old. Tennis was always the main passion for me. [I had] the dream of becoming a professional and the dream of having moments like I did today… The memories I share with my family and current coaches go a long way back.

Can you describe your relationship with coaches Frederic Fontang and Toni Nadal?
Both are really important for me. Frederic has been the rock for the team. He is the leader and was able to build a great team around me and he is a real professional. I think he deserves more credit than he gets. He took me when I was 17 years old and has taken me to where I am today and we are not done. It is a really special relationship we have.

I think we took Toni to have that experience from the top of the sport and he built a lot of confidence [for] the team and normality to winning tournaments like this and reaching late stages at Grand Slams.

You are a focussed and dynamic player to watch on court. How would you describe yourself off court? Are you a similar character?
I would say I am. What you see on the court is similar to what you get off the court. I am quite simple with how I go about things. I know what I like to do and I am a very loyal person with my family and my team and people that are close around me. I like to keep it easy and have a good time. I know when to be serious and disciplined and know when to have a good time.

What do you consider to be your biggest passions outside of tennis and can you tell us a little bit about those interests? I know you are an accomplished piano player.
I love music. Not only playing, I haven’t played the piano in months. But music, in general, brings me a lot of inspiration because we travel a lot, so I listen to a lot of music. Not that I would be a musician myself in terms of creating music, but it is definitely an important part of my life. Also, any sport in general. I am a very active person. I like to watch and enjoy many different sports.

Canadian tennis is in a strong place at the moment, with Canada lifting the ATP Cup title. How important for you is it that you and Denis Shapovalov inspire the younger generation in your country?
We have been doing well. This journey started in 2015 when we won junior doubles titles together and from there it has gotten better and better, year after year. He has been able to do amazing things also in this sport.

I have been motivated to do the same and in the future we could have two Canadians regularly in the Top 10, which would be an amazing achievement for each other and for the country. To win the ATP Cup title was a dream. I know it inspired a lot of people back home.

This is a milestone moment in your career. How will you celebrate this victory?
I like to keep it simple. I don’t do anything crazy. I like to keep it with the people who have been on the journey with me, so we can really enjoy this moment together and look back at some good memories and have great discussions. We will go to a nice restaurant and enjoy some good food and then rest. The emotion I lived on the court will keep a special place in my heart for years to come.