AMERICAN wildcard, Brandon Nakashima has remarkably kept his run at the 2020 ATP Miami Open fantasy tennis tournament going after defeating 30th seed German, Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round. In only his second ATP Tour tournament, Nakashima has already bundled out Nick Kyrgios, Matteo Berrettini and now Struff on his way to a head-to-head encounter against ninth seed, David Goffin. Despite being ranked outside the top 200, Nakashima showed all of his potential so far this tournament, and in the recent win over Nakashima came back from a 6-0 second set deficit – like he did against Kyrgios – to win 6-3 0-6 6-3.

Goffin had an easier run into the encounter with a straight sets win over Belarusian 19th seed, Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 6-1. He joined the three other top 10 seeds playing on day six in the next round as they accounted for their respective opponents. Novak Djokovic brushed aside 26th seed Pablo Carreno Busta in an hour of play, 6-2 6-0, while Daniil Medvedev only took 20 minutes longer to knock out Croatia’s Borna Coric. Sixth seed German, Alexander Zverev came from a set down to avoid a huge upset loss by fending off unseeded Slovenian Alijaz Bedene, 2-6 6-1 6-2.

The two other seeds through to the next round were 14th seed Russian, Andrey Rublev and 20th seed American, John Isner. They ironically beat opponents of their opponent nations with Rublev knocking out United States’ Reilly Opelka quickly 6-2 6-3, while Isner came from a set down to post a win against up-and-coming Russian, Karen Khachanov 3-6 6-4 6-4. In the final match of the third round, former top 10 player, Andy Murray won through to the last 16 with a terrific 6-4 6-3 win over fellow wildcard, J.J. Wolf. Murray now has to take on fourth seed Medvedev for a spot in the quarter finals.

The Round of 16 begins tomorrow with four matches played. Second seed Rafael Nadal takes on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and seventh seed Gael Monfils faces Kyle Edmund. An all-Canadian battle between 15th seed Denis Shapovalov and wildcard Vasek Pospisil is not to be missed, while Aussie, Alex de Minaur faces reliable Spaniard, Roberto Bautista Agut in the final fourth round match.

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) defeated [26] Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 6-2 6-0
[4] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated [32] Borna Coric (CRO) 6-4 6-0
[6] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated Alijaz Bedene (SLO) 2-6 6-1 6-2
[9] David Goffin (BEL) defeated [19] Grigor Dimitrov (BLR) 7-5 6-1
[20] John Isner (USA) defeated [13] Karen Khachanov (RUS) 3-6 6-4 6-4
[14] Andrey Rublev (RUS) defeated Reilly Opelka (USA) 6-2 6-3
[WC] Brandon Nakashima (USA) defeated [30] Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 6-3 0-6 6-3
[WC] Andy Murray (GBR) defeated [WC] J.J. Wolf (USA) 6-4 6-3