Nakashima comes back to win against Rune in Milan, secures semifinals spot

Brandon Nakashima will play in the semifinals of the Next-Gen ATP Finals in Milan after he defeated Holger Rune 3-1.

The American faced off against the Danish player in a match that would send the winner into the semifinals. Early on it appeared that Rune might be the one who will secure that spot after he played a very good set that included a very good tiebreak. Rune won it 7-3 to take the lead but the American would not be denied.

He raised his level even more playing much better tennis overall and it worked. He served well and attacked Rune repeatedly and the Danish player could not keep up. In the 2nd one, Nakashima quite easily smashed Rune 4-1 to make it 1-1 in sets. In the 3rd one, something similar happened with Nakashima once again winning fairly easily 4-1.

In both of these sets, Nakashima was able to easily attack Rune on his weaker 2nd serve. The Danish player struggled with his serve barely putting over 50 % of his first serves into play and that gave Nakashima too many opportunities. Rune started off better in the 4th set taking an early 2-0 lead after some cheap errors from Nakashima.

However, his serving woes continued, and once again he could not buy the first one when he needed to. That give Nakashiam looks at his 2nd serve and the American was able to pull it back to 2-2. Rune continued fighting to force a tiebreak but in it, he collapsed giving Nakashima the easy 7-1 finish. A great win for the American who moves to the semifinals.