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Brandon Nakashima overcomes Yannick Hanfmann on Tuesday at the Adelaide International.
By ATP Staff
Brandon Nakashima dug deep to carve out a confidence-boosting win on Tuesday at the Adelaide International.
The seventh-seeded American rallied after a tough second set to earn a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 triumph against qualifier Yannick Hanfmann at the hard-court ATP 250. Nakashima, who was chasing just his second win in nine tour-level matches, broke his opponent’s serve in the first and last games of the deciding set en route to a one-hour, 41-minute victory.
“I always knew that he was going to be a very dangerous player,” said Nakashima after his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with Hanfmann. “He hits very big off both sides and can make some incredible points out there. I knew I just had to stay focused as much as possible on myself, and just had to kind of fight for every point.”
Despite his late-season struggle for form in recent months, Nakashima enjoyed a resurgent time on Tour for much of 2024. He is this week competing as the No. 37 in the PIF ATP Rankings, just two spots shy of his career high.
By earning his maiden match win in Adelaide, during which he struck 14 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats, Nakashima set a second-round clash with Rinky Hijikata. The home favourite later breezed past David Goffin 6-1, 6-2 in his first-round match.
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Arthur Cazaux holds fond memories Down Under after he charged to the fourth round at the Australian Open a year ago. The Frenchman added another impressive victory to his record on Aussie soil on Tuesday, when he eased past Adam Walton 7-5, 6-1 in Adelaide. The 22-year-old Cazaux will next eye an upset in his second-round clash against fifth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Miomir Kecmanovic, Marcos Giron and Li Tu also notched opening wins in South Australia. Kecmanovic downed sixth seed Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-2 and Giron overcame home hope Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Meanwhile Tu prevailed 6-1, 7-5 in an all-Aussie battle with James Duckworth.
Top seed Tommy Paul’s opening opponent in Adelaide will be lucky loser Manuel Guinard. The Frenchman saw off Roman Safiullin 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-1.
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