Brandon Nakashima wins first Next Gen Finals match in Milan

The 2021 edition of the Next Gen Finals is being played in the same format as before. The winner of the set is the first player to get to four while 3-3 scores result in a tiebreak. The first match saw Nakashima take on Cerundolo from Ukraine and the American expectedly was able to pull through. Cerundolo accumulated the overwhelming majority of his points on clay and it showed.

The Argentinian had trouble staying competitive in the first set as Nakashima was able to dominate with his powerful serve and strong forehand. Great movement only brought the Argentinian so much as Nakashima ran away with the first set 4-1. The 2nd set featured much-improved play by Cerundolo and he was much more competitive.

The players kept their serves and ultimately we ended up in a very entertaining tiebreak. Nakashima was not as sharp as before with errors being very common from him in the 2nd set. A couple of those caused him to lose the tiebreak 3-7.

After that Nakashima became serious once again and started playing much better. That resulted in a very quikc turnaround as he took a 3-0 lead. He closed it out with 4-1 and 4-0 to secure his first win in Milan.