Brandon Nakashima, the Gatekeeper

It's a tale as old as time... a player trying to break into the ATP tour has to go through the difficult "Nakashima Test"...

De Jong is having a great season and is starting to appear more frequently in ATP events. I got to see him live in Båstad and thought he played well there, and he seems to be continuing in the same fashion. He was a decently sized favorite in all of his qualifying matches and managed the first and third ones very easily, although the second one was a battle vs Mayot. In the recent tournaments, Nakashima has been doing what he usually does: beating the players he is supposed to beat and struggling to get over the line against the top players (losses to ADM, Shelton, and Zverev).

I'm a bit sad that De Jong has to face Nakashima in the first round; I would have been happy to back him against most other players. Despite not being the biggest guy, De Jong has a pretty decent serve (especially down the T), a decent amount of firepower, good rally tolerance, and great movement. So, yes, he is a very well-rounded player all around, with no major weaknesses, but also lacks any outstanding attributes. And that is a significant problem against Nakashima; there is a reason he tends to beat the players he is supposed to beat. For most CH-level players, that means they need to risk a lot more, upping the aggression and trying to hit big (which often leads to overpressing and too many unforced errors ). Blockx came very close to beating Nakashima in Cincinnati by playing with a lot of aggression and hitting big recently, losing in a deciding set tiebreaker...