Nakashima Lands Knockout In Delray Beach
Nakashima Lands Knockout In Delray Beach
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.