The man of the moment, or almost!

Nakashima has done XXL preparation for this US Open and simply cannot let the Americans down.

What can we say about Nakashima’s level over the past few weeks? It was simply perfect! He’s established himself as one of the best servers in the world, with hellish precision. He’s been very clinical in the matches where he needed to be and he’s also held up physically when everyone thought he was going to crack. He fully deserved his rest before starting the US Open, but I’m still a bit afraid he might be burnt out over the long run, unfortunately. We’ll have to be cautious in the first round, but I still think it should hold up in this match, before maybe getting more complicated.

In any case, it’s a first round that needs to be taken seriously, because Baez is never easy to play. He’s got a good mentality, a good attitude, and he’s finding some good tennis again at the moment. The Argentine isn’t a hard-court specialist, but he always puts up a fierce fight, as usual. Naturally, he’ll try to turn it into a physical battle to maybe wear Nakashima down. Baez just retired in Winston-Salem because of illness. I think he was mostly a bit tired and coming off a long Challenger in Cancun and a tough first round. If it really was an illness, then it’s a bit annoying, but he’s had several days to recover. I don’t want to underestimate him too much because he sometimes produces monstrous matches when you least expect it. But it’s clear that right now we’re seeing the best version of Nakashima and that with the quality of his serve, he’s supposed to make things easier for himself. I even think that from the baseline he’s become better than this type of player at the moment. The match is clearly on his racquet.