THERE was plenty to cheer about for the United States back home in Washington as the Citi Open Round of 32 results were completed today. The ATP Tour 500 event saw a whopping nine Americans out on court across eight different games. Of the eight possible winners, six were successful, with the only two going down to seeds. The biggest upset of the day went to Steve Johnson who took down Australian third seed Alex de Minaur in a come-from-behind win. The Australian was playing his first match since testing positive to COVID-19 and struggled to finish off with Johnson getting up 6-7 6-4 6-2 to advance through to the Round of 16.

De Minaur was far from the only seed to bite the dust however, with fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov and sixth seed Daniel Evans both bowing out. Dimitrov was knocked out by Belarusian Ilya Ivashka in straight sets 6-2 7-6, whilst Evans felt the full brunt of rising American star Brandon Nakashima. Turning 20 this week, Nakashima overcame a tight first set to run away with the contest and destroy the the Brit 7-6 6-0. Like de Minaur, Evans was playing his first match since recovering from a positive COVID-19 test which ruled him out of the Tokyo Olympics.

“It definitely feels great right now. Having all this confidence from playing all these matches, going deep in tournaments has been good for me,” Nakashima said post-match. “I’m sure every player would want to have this feeling right now of playing well and winning all these matches. I’m just trying to embrace it as much as possible.”

Nakashima served five aces, and won 79 per cent of his first serve, and 60 per cent of his second serve points, breaking four times to one, and ending up with a 49 per cent success rate off Evans’ serve. The Brit said he had no answers for the American who will be one to watch in the coming years.

“I think he’s got obviously a very big future. He seems very calm and levelheaded, which is a good thing. He played good today. He put me away pretty convincingly in the end,”Evans said. “He’s going to be a good player.”

The success of the seeds was restored somewhat with top seed Rafael Nadal making his Citi Open debut and putting away another American wildcard Jack Sock in a longer-than-anticipated three-setter of 6-2 4-6 7-6, while fifth seed Jannik Sinner won in straight sets over Emil Ruusuvuori. The two young guns showed plenty of potential for the future in the clash, with the Italian coming up trumps courtesy of a 6-2 6-4 win. Sinner only dropped three points off his first serve and 12 in total off his serve to not face a break point, whilst breaking the Finn three times.

“It was not easy. We’ve had some great battles already, this time was the third [time I faced him],” Sinner said post-match “He’s a very, very good player and a young guy. I’m happy about my performance today.

“I was trying to play my game. I think we both have similar styles, we both play quite flat. I was trying to change direction [of the ball] earlier than him, and that worked well for me today.”

The only other Americans to lose alongside Sock on the day were Taylor Fritz and Tennys Sandgren. The 10th seeded Fritz went down to compatriot Denis Kudla in a disappointing loss, with Kudla advancing to the next round courtesy of a 6-4 6-2 triumph. Sandgren retired 11 games into the match trailing 14th seed South African Lloyd Harris by a set at that stage. Eighth seed Reilly Opelka and unseeded Mackenzie McDonald also saluted in the Round of 32, with Australian John Millman taking care of Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer in straight sets, as did Japan’s Kei Nishikori over ninth seed Kazakh Alexander Bublik.

CITI OPEN ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated [WC] Jack Sock (USA) 6-2 4-6 7-6
Steve Johnson (USA) defeated [3] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 6-7 6-4 6-2
Ilya Ivashka (BLR) defeated [4] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 6-2 7-6
[5] Jannik Sinner (ITA) defeated Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) 6-2 6-4
[WC] Brandon Nakashima (USA) defeated [6] Daniel Evans (GBR) 7-6 6-0
[8] Reilly Opelka (USA) defeated Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) 7-6 6-3
Kei Nishikori (JPN) defeated [9] Alexander Bublik (KAZ) 6-2 7-5
Denis Kudla (USA) defeated [10] Taylor Fritz (USA) 6-4 6-2
[11] John Millman (AUS) defeated [Q] Elias Ymer (SWE) 6-2 7-6
Mackenzie McDonald (USA) defeated [13] Benoit Paire (FRA) 6-7 6-4 6-4
[14] Lloyd Harris (RSA) defeated Tennys Sandgren (USA) 6-4 1-0 RET

Picture credit: ATP Tour