Playing some of the most assured tennis of his career, Brandon Nakashima slowed Rafael Jódar’s roll Wednesday at the Canadian Open in Montreal, beating the red-hot teenager 7-6(3), 6-4 to advance to the biggest final of his career.
The tournament featured the first ATP Masters 1000 semifinal lineup of players all born in the 2000s. Nakashima, the oldest of the bunch at 25, flexed his experience, tactical know-how and a newfound sense of self-belief against his 19-year-old opponent.
Nakashima’s win means Montreal will see the first all-American final at a Masters 1000 event, which is the level below a Grand Slam, since Andy Roddick defeated Mardy Fish at the Cincinnati Open in 2003. He’ll play defending champion Ben Shelton, who beat Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2 in the second semifinal of the night.
The match will be Nakashima’s first final above an ATP 250-level event, the lowest of the three tiers on the tour’s ladder of events. Chalk a good part of that up to Wayne Ferreira, the coach Nakashima began working with in June, who previously helped Frances Tiafoe crack the top 10 and who’s helping Nakashima build trust in his own game.
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The pair had a solid week of training before Nakashima reached the semifinals of the DC Open, where they focused on his forehand and serve. Nakashima came away with a greater sense of confidence in both shots.
It’s paid dividends in Montreal, where bold, complete tennis has helped Nakashima win more critical points in matches without changing too much in his game technically.
“In the past, I would be playing at a really high level, then sometimes, when it would come down to the end, I would get a little bit tired or I would stop pushing the ball a little more,” Nakashima said in a news conference Wednesday. “But now I feel like I can go for my shot, hit my serve spots well.”
The Californian wasted no time making his presence known Wednesday. He and Jódar are familiar with each other’s games, having played doubles together; both also played college tennis at Virginia, though years apart. Nakashima clearly had the scouting report on Jódar — he grabbed control of the match straightaway by depriving him of the topspin-heavy, cross-court forehands he so favors and drummed up a bushel of break points across Jódar’s early service games.
Nakashima didn’t win those points, but his aggression forced Jódar into constant defense, and scrambling to find workaround after workaround took its toll on the teenager. Jódar, who’s reached at least the quarterfinals in seven of the last eight tournaments he’s played, finally looked as if he was running low on energy.
“It was good to get those opportunities in the beginning because I knew I could do it again on his serve,” Nakashima said.
Across the net, Nakashima balanced his forceful return games with quick, easy holds thanks to impeccable serving — he banged six aces, hit no double faults and won 81 percent of points on his first serve.
His chipping away at Jódar finally paid off in the first set tiebreak, when he took a 4-2 lead, clinched the set and rode that momentum to a 2-0 lead in the second set.
The second set was more of the same right up until Nakashima neared the finish line. He dictated from the baseline and served with precision as Jódar asked the crowd for more noise and energy whenever he won a big point and yelled in frustration when he lost one. The outbursts helped relieve some pressure, but Nakashima tightened up as the prospect of making his first Masters 1000 final neared.
He needed five match points to close out the win.
“I knew I was going to be nervous a little bit serving out the match, but I just tried to tell myself what I’ve done to get to this point, and I deserve to be in this position. Just to go for it,” he said.
When he finally did, Nakashima did it in style — with a laser-beam serve to the corner of the service box before raising his arms in victory. He’d believed in himself, and he delivered.
“One of my top three moments of my career, for sure,” Nakashima said. “Just trying to soak it all in.”