We preview the Masters 1000 Miami Open matches featuring Jenson Brooksby and Nikoloz Basilashvili as well as Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima.
2022 ATP Tour
Masters 1000
Miami Open
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida (Outdoor Hardcourt)
Selected Round of 64 Matches- 26th March
Jenson Brooksby vs Nikoloz Basilashvili (18)
Taylor Fritz’s victory at Indian Wells could signal the dawning of a new era in American men’s tennis. 21-year-old Jenson Brooksby is one of many young American talents chomping at the bit to match Fritz’s achievement.
Brooksby has been on a steady upward trajectory over the course of the last 18 months. He reached his first final in Newport last year amongst a string of encouraging performances. He proved that was no fluke by reaching his 2nd final in Dallas just six weeks back. He then showed his class in Indian Wells by beating his first top 10 opponents in Stefanos Tsitsipas. Brooksby enters this match under a slight cloud of controversy. He violently tossed his racquet during his opening-round victory against Federico Coria.
The racquet ended up hitting an unsuspecting boy ball and the American was given a point penalty. Many observers were left speechless, with Caroline Wozniacki- who was commenting on the match- saying it warranted disqualification.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the combustible Brooksby deals with this unwanted bad press.
His next opponent will be 18th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili (himself not a stranger to controversy). I think I may have said this before but it begs repeating.
Nikoloz Basilashvili is the Jelena Ostapenko of men’s tennis. He will lose six consecutive matches and then boom…he picks up another title. This makes him a bit of an enigma when it comes to prediction. Basilashvili won titles in Qatar and Germany last year.
But his greatest achievement was an unheralded run to the Indian Wells final. But his form took another characteristic nosedive after that breakthrough. He went 1-7 until he pulled another rabbit out of the hat at this year’s Qatar Open, where he reached his 2nd consecutive final in Doha.
He comes into this event fresh off an early Indian Wells exit. But that doesn’t seem to carry much water with Basilashvili. It all depends on the early exchanges and on how the Georgian harnesses his supreme talent.
Verdict: Brooksby to win in three – This will be their 3rd career meeting, with Basilashvili winning both previous encounters. The last of those came in last year’s Canadian Masters, where the Georgian actually overcame a one-set deficit to win in three. Despite his superior record, I just have a feeling that Brooksby could edge this one. He isn’t your prototypical American hardcourt player, relying on cunning as much as power. But he seems to be playing slightly more aggressively of late and Basilashvili is always game for a ‘surprise’ defeat.
Frances Tiafoe (28) (92/100) vs Brandon Nakashima (17/20)
This match just exemplifies the exciting state of men’s tennis in America. 24-year-old Frances Tiafoe is really at a critical point in his career. He needs to finally deliver on all his potential. He showed signs of progression last year, reaching the final in Vienna.
But he has barely played in 2022, with a debilitating elbow injury keeping him out of action post-Aussie Open. He actually comes into this event with a 2-4 record for the year. He will no doubt have benefitted from his time on court in Indian Wells and he does possess an excellent record in this event. He holds a 10-4 win-loss record at the Miami Open.
That includes a quarterfinal run on these very courts in 2019. The courts are quicker than Indian Wells and should provide value for his big serves and forehand.
20-year-old Brandon Nakashima enjoyed a breakthrough 2021 campaign that took him from relative obscurity to the world’s top 70. He reached two finals last year (in Atlanta and Los Cabos). Both performances demonstrated his dexterity and suitability to hardcourt tennis. He has a really solid all-round game that doesn’t seem to have too many glaring weaknesses.
He served an impressive 11 aces in his first-round win against Soonwoo Kwon, showing that he has a serve that can dictate proceedings. But there is nothing in his game that is elite at this moment in time. He moves pretty well and he has decent power. But he will probably need to work on producing more pronounced weapons if he wants to get into the upper reaches of the sport.
Having said that, his backhand is quite tidy and could present Tiafoe with some problems (particularly down the line).
Verdict: Tiafoe to win in straight sets at 21/10- Tiafoe has a pretty solid 2-0 head-to-head record against Nakashima. That includes a comfortable straight-set victory at Indian Wells last week. These faster surfaces should actually make this match pretty routine for Tiafoe. He plays well in this event and Nakashima just doesn’t have the power to consistently hurt Tiafoe from the back of the court.
