By Alberto Amalfi | Friday, November 11, 2022
Brandon Nakashima edged Jack Draper 4-3(6), 1-4, 4-2, 4-3(5) to extend his perfect Milan record and roar into the Next Gen ATP Finals title match.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty
Brandon Nakashima continues to show competitive calm amid tiebreaker storms.
The 21-year-old Nakashima edged Jack Draper 4-3(6), 1-4, 4-2, 4-3(5) to extend his perfect Milan record and roar into the Next Gen ATP Finals.
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Down 2-5 in the fourth-set tiebreaker, Nakashima ran off five points in a row rifling a forehand pass for a second match point and ripping a crosscourt forehand to provoke an error.
The 49th-ranked Nakashima raised his Milan record to 4-0, including a 6-1 mark in tiebreakers this week.
Nakashima rapped 10 aces with no double faults and permitted just eight points on his first serve. Draper hit 15 aces against five double faults and saved five of six break points.
The Nakashima two-handed backhand is one of his best weapons and he used it it open the court for finishing forehands in a 99-minute victory.
The fourth-seeded Nakashima will face Czech Jiri Lehecka in a rematch of their round-robin clash, which the American won 4-1, 4-3, 4-2 on Wednesday.
In today's opening semifinal, Lehecka won 17 of 22 trips to net stopping Swiss Dominic Stricker 4-1, 4-3(4), 2-4, 4-1 in one hour, 22 minutes.
"It wasn't an easy match. I mean, we all saw what he was capable of doing this week," Lehecka said. "He was playing incredible during every match he played so far. So for me I knew that even if he's like not right now in top 100 that of course it wouldn't be easy.
"I played him before this year. I knew that he can serve pretty well, he can play great shots with his forehand. So me and my team set up a tactic to try to play aggressive, to go for every volley as much as I can. Today I was just a better player, you know. But I'm very happy with my performance today, yeah."
The 74th-ranked Czech, who scored his first ATP main-draw win in February when he reached the Rotterdam semifinals as a qualifier, grew up looking up to Tomas Berdych and has modeled his aggressive baseline game on the former Czech Davis Cup champion.
"When when I was a kid I was looking up to Tomas Berdych for sure because Davis Cup 2012 and 2013 when Czech team won both times it was an incredible experience for me to see it with my own eyes," Lehecka said. "You know, how they played, how they won in front of 20,000 Czech fans.
"So then of course doing my career and when I was growing up as a kid I saw some similarities in our game. That he has a strong body as I have. He can play really fast. We have similar technique of forehand. He can serve pretty well as well.
"When we speak about Czech players Tomas Berdych is for sure the one who I think that I'm trying to get as close as I can, yeah."