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Rising American star Brandon Nakashima aims to be consistent this year and potentially lift his maiden ATP title. Nakashima, 20, has proved that he is capable of playing well on the ATP Tour as he made two ATP finals last year.
Impressively, Nakashima made those ATP finals in back-to-back weeks. Nakashima made his maiden ATP final in Los Cabos, before he lost to Cameron Norrie. A week later, Nakashima made the Atlanta final -- in which he ended runner-up to John Isner.
"This year it’s a matter of being consistent each week," Nakashima said, per tennis.com. "I'm very excited about this year. There are going to be a lot more opportunities this year playing higher-level tournaments, playing more top players and I’m just trying to keep improving my game as much as possible."
Nakashima makes a winning start in Dallas
On Monday, world No.
82 Nakashima beat John Millman 7-5 7-6 (3) in the Dallas first round. The first break of the match was seen in the 12th game, when Nakashima broke Millman to win the first set. Nakashima found himself down by a break in the second set but he recovered to force a tie-break.
Millman had a 3-2 lead in the tie-break before Nakashima won five points in a row to win the tie-break and complete a straight-set win. "I know my game is right there with all the top players. It’s just a matter of the little things, a few points here and there and taking all the experiences," Nakashima insisted.
At just 20, Nakashima has a lot of room for improvement and he is working hard to becoming the best version of himself. "It’s building up my strength in the gym," Nakashima explained. "Just keep improving the weapons as much as possible.
All the top players, their weapons are so big so I think just having those weapons and improving them, making them better and trying to improve are important."