The National Bank Open final will be an all-American showdown between Ben Shelton and Brandon Nakashima after they won their respective semifinal matches in straight sets on Wednesday night.
Nakashima got things started with a 7-6(3), 6-4 upset of Rafael Jodar, advancing to his Masters 1000 championship match after two hour and two minutes. The world No. 31 struck six aces without double-faulting and saved all six of the break points he faced. Four of those came in the last game of the match before Nakashima finally converted his fifth match point.
“It was crazy; the last few games were super tight,” Nakashima reflected. “I knew I had to keep fighting and fight off a couple of break points but luckily my serve hit the spots when I needed it to and super happy to get through that one.”
There was nothing tight about the second semifinal between Shelton and fellow American Learner Tien. Shelton was 0-2 in the head-to-head series going in, but he had no trouble rolling to a 6-2, 6-3 victory in one hour and 24 minutes.
The defending champion powered his way back into the Canada final without dropping serve a single time, fighting off all four of Tien’s break chances. Shelton served at 74 percent.
Thursday marks the sixth meeting between Shelton and Nakashima, with Shelton sweeping the head-to-head series 5-0 — including 11-1 in total sets. However, their most competitive contest came in none other than this same tournament 12 months ago (in Toronto rather than Montreal). Shelton survived a 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(5) third-round thriller on his way to the title.
who ya got?
Ricky’s sure thing again wasn’t so sure.
It’s good to have the luxury of not having to make predictions and just being interested in tennis. These guys both played amazing semis. While Shelton probably has a huge head of steam built up to defend that title and is the general favourite, Nakashima has also performed superbly and looks a better player than he was last year, when he was already more competitive against Shelton than the scorelines suggested. He’s happy with his new coach and if he has an excellent day he’s capable of causing an upset. There’s a lot of intangibles we don’t see, like who’s going to sleep better the night before the final, who’s going to deal with nerves better on the day, has anyone acquired little niggles during the tournament or eaten something slightly dodgy, etc.
One sure thing here: as long as at least one of them survives the match, there will be an American winner. I don’t think double lightning bolts or other fatal disasters are very likely!
Oops. First it didn’t post and now it’s in stereo.😵💫