Brandon Nakashima caused a surprise at the Tennis Erste Bank Open in the Wiener Stadthalle on Wednesday.
The American eliminated his fourth-seeded compatriot Tommy Paul 6:4.6:4. The twelfth in the world rankings celebrated his third ATP tournament victory of the season in Stockholm just last week and arrived with a lot of self-confidence.
The early out was a setback in the fight for participation in the ATP Finals for the best eight players.
Dimitrov jumps the opening hurdle
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However, the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow, who was ranked third, lived up to his role as favorite at the start. The ninth-ranked player defeated China’s Zhang Zhizhen 6:4,7:5 and will face Tomas Machac in the round of 16 on Thursday.
The Czech had the upper hand against the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 7:6(5),6:1 in the first singles game of the day at the second tournament venue, the Heumarkt.
The Russian Karen Khachanow also made it to the top thanks to a 6:2,6:4 against the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild. His next opponent is Nakashima.
Paul doesn’t take the Stockholm momentum with him
He started the game with a break. From his point of view, Paul was just able to prevent another loss of serve when the score was 2:4 and he was also able to fend off a set point at 3:5. The favorite was powerless when the opponent served, Nakashima served to zero to make it 6:4.
In the second round another break was decisive, this time making it 4:3. In the last game, Nakashima was 15:40 behind on his own serve, but was able to hit back with four points in a row and win the game with the first match point.
The premiere of the 23-year-old number 38 in the world in the town hall ended victoriously. Paul recently didn’t have to give up a set at the 250 event in Stockholm on the way to winning the tournament. He is currently in eleventh place in the race for the best players of the year.
The hunt for the series
Dimitrov is tenth immediately ahead of him. The 33-year-old also received a break at the beginning against Zhang. A rebreak to make it 3:3 and another game win with the Chinese’s service to make it 6:4 turned things around.
In the second set, both players played well on serve before Dimitrow managed a break to make it 7:5. After the second match point and 1:38 hours, the round of 16 was in the bag. Last year he failed in the round of 16, his best performance in seven participations in Vienna including this year was the semi-finals in 2022.
If he gets there, a strong series would continue, as he made at least the semifinals in every indoor event he competed in 2024.
Victories, dramas and legends – 50 years of town hall tennis
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