Nakashima, Brandon (2001- )

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    Tennis Said Goodbye to Roger Federer and Hello to Carlos Alcaraz

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    The game went through a lot of changes and drama this year, including an emotional farewell to Serena Williams at the U.S. Open.Right after Brandon Nakashima won the ATP’s Next Gen Finals — a year-end championship for eight elite players ages 21 and under — in Milan last month, he headed to London for a vacation with his girlfriend.Walking through the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, with its holiday lights blazing, Nakashima, 21, realized that he, too, had blazed new trails in 2022.“It’s definitely been a very interesting year,” said Nakashima, who won his first ATP title in his hometown San Diego in September and ended the season ranked in the top 50 for the first time. “A year ago, I was playing mostly [low-level] Challenger tournaments and now I’m one of the standout new players rising up to challenge the older guys. That’s pretty exciting.”Brandon Nakashima, above, had a breakout year, capturing his first ATP title in September, and ending the season ranked in the top 50 for the first time. Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesInteresting. Exciting. Melodramatic. Breathtaking. All apt descriptions of the 2022 men’s and women’s pro tennis season. With the emergence of Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz and the teary departures of Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty, it’s hard to remember a year in the sport quite like this one.When the season began in Australia in January, Covid was still a major issue. The nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, whose steadfast refusal to be vaccinated for Covid-19 polarized fans worldwide, was detained for hours at the Melbourne Airport and then placed in lockdown at an immigration detention hotel.He was ultimately sent home just as the tournament was starting.With Federer in Switzerland nursing his ailing knee, Rafael Nadal, who had not won a major since the 2020 French Open, beat Daniil Medvedev for the men’s title and captured his 21st major championship, breaking a three-way tie with Federer and Djokovic.Nadal, who turned 36 in June, won his first 21 matches of the year until finally falling to Taylor Fritz in the final at Indian Wells in March. He then added a 22nd major by winning his 14th French Open.With much of the early-season drama on the men’s side, Barty, the world No. 1 and reigning Wimbledon champ, cruised through the women’s Australian Open, and became the first Aussie woman to win the title since 1978.Less than two months later, she announced her retirement, paving the way for Swiatek to become No. 1. Swiatek wasted no time in proving her worth, winning 37 consecutive matches from late February to early July and claiming her second French and first United States Opens.“I had times when I wasn’t that motivated,” Swiatek said during the year-end WTA Finals, where she lost in the semifinals to Aryna Sabalenka, who ended the year ranked No. 5. “I accept that I don’t have to feel always 100 percent motivated. But when I’m going on the court it’s still the same, I always want to win.”Serena Williams, above, gestured to the crowd at the 2022 U.S. Open after a match against Ajla Tomljanovic. Williams won two star-studded matches at the tournament, and announced her retirement after the Open.Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports, via ReutersIf Swiatek’s rise seemed meteoric, it was nothing compared with that of Alcaraz. Still a teenager, Alcaraz began the 2022 season ranked No. 32 and ended it as the youngest year-end No. 1, at age 19. It was the first time since 2003 that someone other than Djokovic, Federer, Nadal or Andy Murray finished the season atop the ATP rankings.In all, Alcaraz won five titles, including Masters 1000s in Miami and Madrid, where he upset three of the world’s top four players: Nadal, Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.“This was really a head-scratching season,” said the former world No. 1 Jim Courier by phone last month. “It’s hard to look at the two No. 1s and not be amazed. Iga grabbed the mantle and didn’t let go. And Alcaraz, who we expected would be great, did it way ahead of schedule.“There really were three legitimate No. 1s for the men this year,” Courier added. “Carlos earned it on points, but Novak was incredible, because in spite of not playing half the year, he didn’t suffer the emotional strain from being out of the game. But, in the end, I judge No. 1 on the majors and considering that Rafa won two of them, I would think most people would want his year most of all.”There were plenty of other breakout performances. Casper Ruud reached two major finals, losing to Nadal at the French Open and Alcaraz at the U.S. Open. He was also the runner-up to Djokovic at the ATP Finals.Holger Rune, 19, went from relative obscurity to capturing 19 of his last 21 matches, including a victory over Djokovic in the final of the Paris Masters. Fritz won in Indian Wells and took Nadal to five sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Frances Tiafoe beat Nadal and Andrey Rublev before falling in five exuberant sets to Alcaraz in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. And Nick Kyrgios finally reached his first major final at Wimbledon.Elena Rybakina had a breakout season this year, capturing her first major at Wimbledon.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesElena Rybakina captured her first major at Wimbledon, while Ons Jabeur delighted fans by reaching back-to-back finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Coco Gauff reached the final at the French Open, which helped her become, at 18, the youngest woman since 2007 to finish the year ranked in the top 10.Jessica Pegula won the WTA 1000 event in Guadalajara and ended the season ranked No. 3. And Caroline Garcia, who began the year ranked No. 74 and considering retirement, stormed back, winning four titles, including the WTA Finals, and ended up No. 4.Year-end rankings might have been different had off-court drama not intervened. Djokovic was barred from two of the four majors, yet he still managed to win five of the 11 tournaments he entered. He was 42-7 on the season.Russian and Belarusian players including Medvedev, Rublev, Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka were barred from all tournaments in the United Kingdom because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prompting both the ATP and the WTA to withdraw ranking points from Wimbledon, which skewed the ranking system.Team competitions flourished in 2022. Switzerland, led by Belinda Bencic, Jil Teichmann and Viktorija Golubic, won its first Billie Jean King Cup. And Canada, led by Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, began the year by winning the ATP Cup and ended it by winning the country’s first Davis Cup.There were ups and downs this year. Dominic Thiem, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, returned after nearly a year away because of a wrist injury. Zverev had an ankle injury at the French Open and did not play for the rest of the season. And former No. 1 Simona Halep was suspended after the U.S. Open when she failed a drug test.Holger Rune celebrating after defeating Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles final at the Paris Masters. Rune had a standout season, winning 19 of his last 21 matches.Julien De Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThere were tears and cheers when Serena Williams — who announced her retirement after the U.S. Open — won two star-studded night matches there, including a victory over the second-seeded Anett Kontaveit. Williams lost to Ajla Tomljanovic, but the 23-time major winner was already hinting at a possible return before she had left Arthur Ashe Stadium.But by far the most gut-wrenching moment of the year was reserved for Federer, who played his last pro match at the Laver Cup in London in September alongside Nadal, his longtime rival and friend . With hugs and tears flowing, Federer ended a 24-year career that included 20 majors:eight at Wimbledon and six Australian, five U.S. and one French Opens.“Someone who I have admired, who I have rivaled and also I have shared many beautiful things on and off the court was leaving,” Nadal said of his post-match display of emotion, in an interview with Reuters. “You know you’re not going to live that again, and a part of my life left with him. It was also the emotion of saying goodbye to someone who has been so important to our sport.”The future of the sport is now in the youthful hands of Alcaraz, Swiatek, Gauff, Rune and Ruud. But even Nakashima knows there will never be another Federer.“I grew up watching him on TV and idolizing him,” Nakashima — who still has posters of Federer and Nadal on his bedroom wall — said by phone last month. “Unfortunately, I never got to meet him. But if I did, I would just thank him for everything he’s done for our sport.” More

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      How Wimbledon Became the Nick Kyrgios Show

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      Kyrgios, the big, talented Australian, has taken over Wimbledon with his antics and psychological warfare. It’s working.WIMBLEDON, England — Going up against the tennis talents of Nick Kyrgios, the powerful Australian with hands as soft as a masseuse’s, is plenty difficult in its own right.That is just the start, though. Kyrgios, practitioner of psychological warfare, can be even more formidable.The sport’s outspoken, charismatic bad boy, whose antics have stolen the Wimbledon spotlight, casts a spell on the vast crowds that pack stadiums to watch his matches, even on Centre Court at Wimbledon, that supposed temple of decorum.The mid-rally, between-the-legs trick shots, the twisting and curling winners and the antisocial theatrics force opponents to take on Kyrgios and thousands of spectators looking for another episode of the most unpredictable and compelling show in tennis.“Come on, Nick!” they yell as though he were a pal playing a game of darts at the pub.His regular battles with officials erupt without warning and can reappear throughout the match. He knows how much he is loved and loathed, and when a Grand Slam tournament becomes a soap opera starring him, as this one has, his game is right where he wants it to be.“I sit here now in the quarterfinals Wimbledon again, and I just know there’s so many people that are so upset,” he said after outlasting Brandon Nakashima of the United States on Monday in five sets, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2. “It’s a good feeling.”Kyrgios has fought his own psychological battles through the extreme highs and lows of his erratic career. A few years ago, his agent had to drag him from a pub at 4 a.m. because he had a match against Rafael Nadal later that day. He knows as well as anyone that tennis is as much a mental fight as a physical one, maybe more so. He rattles his opponent’s concentration, doing whatever he can to force the guy across the net to start thinking about the drama rather than his game.Kyrgios appeared to injure his right arm or shoulder during a forehand return on Monday.Tolga Akmen/EPA, via ShutterstockHere are the facts of Kyrgios’s fourth-round match against Nakashima, a rising, levelheaded, 20-year-old American, which occurred two days after Kyrgios’s upset of Stefanos Tsitsipas that was a circus of screaming matches with officials that so unnerved Tsitsipas, the fourth-seeded Greek star, that he began trying to hit Kyrgios with his shots — and usually missed.Midway through the first set against Nakashima, Kyrgios appeared to injure his right upper arm and shoulder while trying to muscle a forehand return of Nakashima’s serve. By the latter stages of the set, Kyrgios, whose cannon-like serve is among his most potent weapons, was grabbing and massaging the area around his right triceps muscle on changeovers and between points.He winced after some serves and forehands and repeatedly rotated his arm, as though trying to stretch out the joint and the muscles around it.Unable to swing freely and unable to unleash that nearly 140 m.p.h. serve as he did in his first three matches, Kyrgios stopped chasing and reaching for balls. In the tenth game, Nakashima, playing with his trademark efficiency, jumped on the diminished Kyrgios’s serve repeatedly to take the first set, 6-4. The young American looked like he was on cruise control.The umpire and a tournament official asked Kyrgios if he was OK and if he needed medical attention. He waved them both off, but as the second set began, there was more shoulder rubbing, more wincing, more arm rotation. Kyrgios’s forehand became a wristy whip instead of the windmill that sends opponents running backward.Kyrgios took a medical timeout that may have been more of a mind game against his opponent.Paul Childs/ReutersSometimes there is nothing so difficult as playing against an injured opponent. Players tell themselves to change nothing, to play as if everything were normal. But the mind can instinctually relax, suggesting to not hit that next forehand so close to the line or so hard because maybe it’s not necessary against a weakened opponent.On Monday afternoon, Nakashima could not ignore Kyrgios’s winces and shoulder grabs or his so-much-slower-than-usual walks from one side of the court to the other for the next point.The more Kyrgios rubbed that shoulder, the more tentative Nakashima became. He missed seven of eight first serves in the third game of the second set, then missed a forehand on break point, and suddenly Kyrgios had the momentum.And then the numbers on the board tracking the speed of Kyrgios’s serve began to climb, from the 110s into the 120s in miles per hour and upward from there. And the blasted forehands started to reappear. Serving at a tight moment late in the set, Kyrgios hit 137 and 132 on the radar gun. Minutes later, he was all even.Nakashima settled back down early in the third set. On serve, midway through, Kyrgios called for the physiotherapist and a medical timeout. As Kyrgios received a massage, Nakashima got up from his chair and performed shadow drills facing the stands instead of Kyrgios.Back on the court, Kyrgios served once more well above 120 m.p.h. He stretched his advantage in a tiebreaker with a 129 m.p.h. ace, then won it rifling a forehand return.“He was still serving fine after the medical timeout, still ripping the ball, so I don’t think it was that big of an injury,” said Nakashima, who had no answers for Kyrgios’s serve or forehand in the third-set tiebreaker.That shoulder drama — Kyrgios later described it as one of his “niggles” that he had treated with some painkillers — ended there.Another set, another mind game. Kyrgios, serving at 3-5, could have won the game and made Nakashima serve out the set so Kyrgios could serve first in the deciding act.Kyrgios has been the most entertaining player on and off the court at Wimbledon.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNot so much. How about three serves in the 75-m.p.h. range, one underhanded, and a forehand on set point so obviously aimed off the court? (It hit its target.) Was Kyrgios now quitting?“Complete rope-a-dope tactic,” Kyrgios said. “I just threw away that service game. I knew he was in a rhythm. He was starting to get on top of me. I kind of just wanted to throw him off a little bit.” It worked, judging by the aces, and the running volley he perfectly shaved off the grass in his first service game.There were challenges on calls he thought were wrong, and a few on shots of his that were clearly out. Nakashima serving at deuce at 1-1 made for a convenient time for Kyrgios to start jawing with the chair umpire. Then he stabbed a backhand for break point and pulled off a back-spinning squash shot to induce the error for a service break.And it was largely curtains from there. A 134 m.p.h. serve got Kyrgios to match point at 5-2. A surprise serve-and-volley on second serve on match point sealed it.Cristian Garin of Chile, ranked 43rd in the world, is up next in the quarterfinals. The show goes on, and maybe on and on. More

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      At Wimbledon, American Men Are Putting on a Fourth of July Bash

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      Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and it feels like the 1990s.Taylor Fritz, left, Francis Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are three of eight American men ranked in the top 50. Shaun Botterill/Getty Images; Clive Brunskill/Getty Images; Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesWIMBLEDON, England — Just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, the American men are throwing a party on British soil.As night fell on Thursday at the All England Club, eight American men were set to qualify for the third round of the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, accounting for 25 percent of the final 32 spots. That is the most American men in the third round at the event since 1995, when nine qualified in the Sampras-Agassi-Courier-Chang heydays. It is also the most in any Grand Slam tournament since the U.S. Open in 1996.Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and one more will clinch his spot Friday. The sun has seemingly set on the era when every male American player had a big serve and a forehand and not much else.Some were familiar faces, like John Isner, bashing his way past the hometown favorite Andy Murray. But several were part of the next wave of rising Yanks in their mid-20s — the clique of Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Francis Tiafoe that first bonded as teenagers at a national training center in Florida. And then there were a couple from the wave after that (Jenson Brooksby and Brandon Nakashima) who are still a couple years away from needing a daily shave. Two Americans, Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock, one new to the scene, the other a veteran, were dueling for the last available spot until rain interrupted their match on No. 3 Court on Thursday.Brandon Nakashima won his second-round match against Denis Shapovalov of Canada on Thursday.Toby Melville/Reuters“It’s been a long, long progression,” said Martin Blackman, the former pro who is the general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association.Now before anyone stateside rushes out to the liquor store to get some Pimm’s on ice for a championship celebration, it is worth noting that no one expects any of these players to actually win the men’s singles title, at least not this year. American men’s tennis is deep but light on the top.The U.S. now has eight men in the top 50 and 13 in the top 100, more than any other country. Arguably the most promising of the lot, Sebastian Korda, son of the former world No. 2 Petr Korda, had to withdraw from Wimbledon 10 days ago with shin splints.“Didn’t give me anything to fish for,” Denis Shapovalov of Canada said of Nakashima, who beat him in four sets Thursday.Despite the stampede this week, there are no Americans in the top 10 and just two in the top 20 — Fritz and Reilly Opelka. Russia and Spain each have two players in the top 10. Spain, the best tennis country of the last decade, has four players in the top 20.But for a country whose male talent stock has long been seen as fairly lacking and is without a Grand Slam tournament champion since Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003, depth represents significant progress. It also serves as a kind of motivational tool. A friendly competition has emerged between the Americans in their mid-20s, who are led by Fritz, and the ones who have just reached the legal drinking age in the United States, or are not there yet, to be the first to play into the final rounds of a Grand Slam tournament.“They’re great for us,” Paul, 25, said of Brooksby, Korda, both 21, and Nakashima, 20. “They push us.”“For tennis to grow, we’re going to need some winners on the men’s side,” he added.The U.S.T.A. knows that as well. For years, it has been trying to hone a system to help develop players that will work in a vast country with more than 330 million people and plenty of competition from more popular sports that are cheaper for good young athletes to pursue.Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American men’s player at No. 14.Alastair Grant/Associated PressIn Europe, especially Eastern Europe, young teenagers with promise often leave home for academies. The academic and psychological support can be thin. A “Lord of the Flies,” sink-or-swim environment persists. Despite its success there in producing some formidable talent and champions, including Novak Djokovic, that model was never going to work with American parents.Instead, over the last decade the organization has tried to create a trout farm rather than find a unicorn. It developed a three-tiered program of local, regional and national camps that bring together top talent throughout the year but also allow kids to stay home for as long as possible and work with their own coaches. Airfare to the camps isn’t included, but just about everything else is, even some money for private coaches to attend sometimes so they don’t feel squeezed out of the process as a young player gets older and better.There is no one-size-fits-all approach. During the crucial years of development between the ages of 15 and 22, some players choose to work with U.S.T.A. coaches and trainers at their training centers in Orlando, Fla., or Carson, Calif., outside Los Angeles. Fritz was a part of the U.S.T.A. program for six years, Paul for five, Opelka for four and Tiafoe for three, Blackman said.Others, such as Korda, Nakashima and Brooksby, choose to remain largely outside the system, but they still can qualify for financial support and come to the occasional camp or show up at the training center for competition.Blackman also does not want the organization to preach a certain style of play. Cressy’s serve-and-volley game is just as valued as Brooksby’s finesse, Tiafoe’s serve-and-forehand power, and Nakashima’s all-court approach.At one such camp, a national gathering in Boca Raton, Fla., a decade ago, Fritz, Paul, and Tiafoe first bonded.“It was just really boring in those dorms, nothing to do, so we didn’t have much choice,” Fritz said recently.Fritz, with his big feet and mop of hair, and the least advanced game of the group, quickly became the group punching bag, friendly punching of course.“Big, goofy guy like that, you know he was going to end up being the target,” Tiafoe said.Jenson Brooksby beat Benjamin Bonzi of France on Thursday to advance to the third round.Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesPaul said Fritz took it well. Fritz also saw that members of his new clique were better at tennis than he was, and he began working harder to catch up. Within a few years, he had pushed ahead. He is now the top-ranked American man at No. 14 and the only one of the younger set to have won a Masters 1000 tournament, the level just below the Grand Slams, emerging at Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this year.They remain close friends and genuinely invested in each other’s success, which helps during a long season filled with travel. Paul has been on the road for nearly 10 weeks.“I’m so homesick I want to throw up,” he said Thursday.Text threads and group dinners, sometimes fancy, sometimes burgers and pizza, and lengthy bull sessions help. Tiafoe made the final at a tournament in Portugal earlier this year. As he came off the court following each win, he would find congratulatory notes on his phone from the posse.A big and extremely difficult task for the next generation and the one right behind them still lies ahead — getting into the top 10 and becoming fixtures in the last matches of the biggest tournaments, the way American women, led by the Williams sisters, have performed for years.It’s getting closer.“I expect us to do well in all of these tournaments now,” Paul said. “It’s all about winning one more match and going one round deeper.”Paul has never made the second week of a Grand Slam. On Friday, on the first day of a third round with plenty of American company, he will get another chance. More