{"id":314978,"date":"2022-09-10T08:37:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T15:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=314978"},"modified":"2022-09-08T18:44:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T01:44:45","slug":"san-diegos-nakashima-continues-steady-climb-toward-top-of-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/san-diegos-nakashima-continues-steady-climb-toward-top-of-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego\u2019s Nakashima continues steady climb toward top of tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some tennis phenoms burst onto the scene when they\u2019re barely teenagers, and they\u2019re impossible not to notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think Coco Gauff, who made a splash at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old three years ago, or Rafael Nadal, who exploded into public consciousness by winning the French Open as a 19-year-old in 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for the vast majority of pro players, the climb is slow and steady, with major milestones visible only to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s Brandon Nakashima, coached as a kid by area legend Angel Lopez, has been rising out of the spotlight for the last two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

But at this year\u2019s Wimbledon, the 21-year-old had a chance for a splashy win, the kind that would make everyone take notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nakashima made a run to the fourth round at the All England Club and was up two sets to one against flashy Australian Nick Kyrgios, who possesses the polar opposite personality of the quiet, unassuming San Diegan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Nakashima wasn\u2019t quite able to close the deal, losing in five sets to Kyrgios. But getting that far and pushing the eventual finalist left Nakashima feeling hopeful, a feeling that carried over to the U.S. Open.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nakashima won two rounds here at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, including a win over No. 17 seed Grigor Dimitrov, before falling to No.11 Jannik Sinner on Sept. 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt stayed with me for a couple of days, but it was all positive from that match, nothing negative,\u201d Nakashima said. \u201cI went f<\/span>tu<\/span>rther than I had before at a Slam so it was a great experience, that gave me a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nakashima needed that confidence after his ranking, once as high as No. 49 in 2021, his first full year on the ATP Tour, had slipped a bit in 2022, as he\u2019s currently ranked 68<\/span>el<\/span><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

No longer a newcomer that other players were unaware of, Nakashima\u2019s strong baseline game and powerful serve became known enough that opponents could now game-plan for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year people know him and they start to find weaknesses in his game,\u201d said Eduardo Infantino, Nakashima\u2019s coach since May. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the learning process. But Brandon is finding his way, and has been playing consistently well this summer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the U.S. Open, Nakashima won many fans with his huge forehand, 125-miles per hour serves, and all-court game. He played maybe his best match of the year against Dimitrov, attacking the net and not letting the Bulgarian into the contest at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEduardo tells me to keep playing my game and be aggressive out there, no matter the situation,\u201d Nakashima said after the win. \u201cPlus the crowd support here is pretty special. The atmosphere at the Open, when an American is playing, is awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nakashima said he\u2019s been happy with his growth this season, even as he\u2019s dealt with completely unexpected off-court issues like \u201cLet\u2019s go Brandon\u201d becoming a catchphrase in some parts of America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been \u2026 a little weird,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

His second full season, he added, has resulted in him becoming more comfortable traveling the world, seeing exotic cities, and not being thrown by different challenges at different tournaments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get used to the environments and learn how to adapt,\u201d Nakashima said. <\/span><\/p>\n

With the U.S. Open behind him, Nakashima plans to travel to the ATP Tournaments in Europe and Asia this fall, but first, he\u2019s coming home. The San Diego Open, beginning Sept. 19, is an ATP 250 event this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to go home and see family,\u201d Nakashima said. \u201cAnytime we get to play a tournament in America is a great thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Infantino said he thinks his charge simply needs to be a little more consistent with his strokes to break back into the Top 50 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a great mentality, and he\u2019s a hard-working guy with the commitment to be a good professional,\u201d Infantino said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of ability, we\u2019re just working to refine his identity as a player. But he is coming along great.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some tennis phenoms burst onto the scene when they\u2019re barely teenagers, and they\u2019re impossible not to notice. Think Coco Gauff, who made a splash at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old three years ago, or Rafael Nadal, who exploded into public consciousness by winning the French Open as a 19-year-old in 2005. But for the vast majority […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":314979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11553","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"San Diego\u2019s Brandon Nakashima, coached as a kid by area legend Angel Lopez, has been rising out of the spotlight for the last two years.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11553],"tags":[14073,14075,13159,14040,14074],"class_list":["post-314978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-coco-gauff","tag-french-open","tag-u-s-open","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}