Nakashima wins fault lines
Error-filled game does in Isner in first match at BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
INDIAN WELLS — Brandon Nakashima took advantage of two doublefaults by John Isner in an error-filled game to collect the match’s only service break and went on to reach the second round at the BNP Paribas Open with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory in the all-American contest Wednesday.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was in the stands as play got started at the year’s first Masters 1000 event, a combined tournament for women and men.
Nakashima, a 21-year-old from San Diego, saved one set point for 2018 Wimbledon semifinalist Isner, who is 37, en route to grabbing the opening tiebreaker. And Nakashima, who won the ATP Next Gen Finals last year, broke to lead 4-2 in the second set after nearly 11⁄2 hours of play, taking his four points in that game via that pair of double-faults, one forehand by Isner that found the net tape and didn’t make it over, and another that sailed long.
Of Isner’s 25 unforced errors, the 2012 runner-up at Indian Wells, double-faulted seven times. Next up for No. 48 Nakashima is the tough task of facing 2022 U.S. Open champion and former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, who is on a 14-match winning streak and won the last three tournaments he entered.
That run of success includes a win over Novak Djokovic, the 22-time Grand Slam champion not in the field at Indian Wells because he can’t travel to the United States as a foreign citizen not vaccinated against COVID-19. The player Djokovic shares the record with for most majors won by a man, Rafael Nadal, also isn’t in the desert; he has been sidelined since injuring his left hip flexor at the Australian Open.
Medvedev, like other seeded players, received a first-round bye.
On Wednesday night, Gael Monfils — a 36-year-old two-time Grand Slam semifinalist — lost 6-3, 6-1 to Jordan Thompson in the Frenchman's first match since being sidelined by a right foot injury he sustained last August.
In other Day 1 action, Evgeniya Rodina, a 34-year-old who is ranked 427th and had played just one tour-level match in 2023, ousted 68thranked Alizé Cornet 6-2, 7-5; 67th-ranked Wang Xinyu beat 37th-ranked Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-1; wild-card entry Dayana Yastremska defeated Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-4; Aliaksandra Sasnovich got past Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 7-6 (5); Anna Blinkova beat Ann Li 6-1, 6-2; and Linda Noskova defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6 (7), 6-1.
Shelby Rogers beat fellow American and wild-card entrant Kati Volynets 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
In men’s matches, Marcos Giron, who won an NCAA singles title for UCLA, eliminated Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3, 7-5; Ugo Humbert beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-2, 7-6 (6); Jason Kubler edged Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 7-6 (4); and Oscar Otte defeated Laslo Djere 6-3, 7-5.