Kyrgios as the secret favourite

Monday will be the day of the Australians in the men’s competition at Wimbledon. Tennis cracks from Down Under are represented in three round of 16 matches. Alex de Minaur and qualifier Jason Kubler, however, should only be the sidekicks of Nick Kyrgios. The Australian, who has a reputation for being a bully in tennis, will have to deal with Brandon Nakashima from the USA.

The two players are not even that far apart in the world rankings. The American is seeded 56th while the Australian is ranked 40th. This means that both have entered this round of 16 unseeded and when looking at the draw, it becomes clear that both have already knocked a clear favourite out of the tournament.

So there are definitely parallels between these two players. However, with Kyrgios there are always residual doubts as to whether he will be able to fully concentrate on the match.

Many too often, the Australian allows himself to be distracted by trivialities and this has certainly cost him a few matches in his career. At Wimbledon 2022, however, he seems to be very focused now, despite various usual verbal gaffes, and if he manages to invest his energy in his game, then you should probably be right in betting on a win for the Australian in the round of 16 between Brandon Nakashima and Nick Kyrgios.

Brandon Nakashima – Statistics & current form

Current world ranking: 56
Seeded List Position: unseeded

Brandon Nakashima has his entire career ahead of him. The San Diego-born US American is just 20 years old and therefore it is not surprising that he has not yet won a single title on the ATP Tour. But if his development continues like this, it is only a matter of time. The young American definitely has the potential to reach the Top 30.

Many grass matches as preparation

On grass, he has quite a good record of 10-3 wins this season. But that also shows that the 20-year-old has put a lot of emphasis on match practice on grass in his preparation. In Surbiton, he lost to Andy Murray in the quarter-finals. In s’Hertogenbosch, also in the quarter-finals, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino was too much for him.

In Eastbourne, Brandon Nakashima had to fight his way through the qualifiers and then lost to Cameron Norrie in the last 16. The US-American has definitely got the feeling for the grass courts. This is now also evident at Wimbledon, even if not everything is going completely smoothly, the US boy has performed very well at Church Road so far.

In the first round, he had to go through four sets against the German qualifier Nicola Kuhn. Then he surprisingly prevailed against the Canadian Denis Shapovalov. The clear three-set win in round three against Daniel Elahi Galan, on the other hand, was only a formality. Despite the good record, we cannot imagine playing the odds on a win for the American in the duel between Brandon Nakashima and Nick Kyrgios.

Nick Kyrgios – Statistics & current form

Current world ranking: 40
Position in the seedings: unseeded

In terms of talent, the Australian might even have made it all the way to the top of the world. However, his carrier high was only 13th place in the ATP ranking from 2016. Enough prize money has been won by the Australian, but he has probably simply given away a greater career through indiscipline. But that also means he remains a very dangerous opponent.

Focus and scandals in turn

In 2014, he once reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and after eight long years, he could repeat his greatest success at Church Road, with even more apparently in store for him this year. Apparently, the 30-year-old has put all his focus on Wimbledon, because he has prepared himself for the holy grass at Church Road in Stuttgart, in Halle and also in Mallorca.

Twice he reached the semifinals, so he had to be on the cards for Wimbledon. In the first round, he caused himself too many difficulties when he had to go over five sets against the Briton Paul Jubb. But already in the second round he showed against Filip Krajinovic in three straight sets how to play on grass.

In the third round, there was a scandalous match against his former doubles partner and Mallorca winner Stefanos Tsitsipas. Both players had problems with the referee and the audience. Sportingly, however, the match lived up to its promise when Nick Kyrgios prevailed 6:7, 6:4, 6:3 and 7:6 in four sets. In this condition, the prediction in the duel between Brandon Nakashima and Nick Kyrgios must clearly go to a victory for the Australian.

Brandon Nakashima – Nick Kyrgios Direct Comparison / H2H Balance

Brandon Nakashima is just 20 years old and hasn’t gained much experience on the ATP Tour. There are still a lot of opponents he hasn’t played yet. On Monday, the US American will play Nick Kyrgios for the first time and let’s see how the 20-year-old from San Diego deals with the Australian’s provocations.

Brandon Nakashima – Nick Kyrgios Tip

Brandon Nakashima has put in decent performances at Church Road so far and is playing his best Grand Slam tournament of his young career. He put an exclamation mark on it when he prevailed over Canadian Denis Shapovalov. Even though Nick Kyrgios is far behind Shapovalov in the rankings, Monday’s match is likely to be Nakashima’s toughest at Wimbledon.

However, the US American has already shown this season that he can perform very well on grass. On Monday, though, it will not only be a matter of getting the ball over the net, but also dealing with his opponent’s lapses.

We actually assume that the US American will win a maximum of one set. This means that we can include some variations in our bets. If the Australian wins two more sets than his young opponent, then he will normally also win a few more games. That’s why we decided to play the betting odds on a match handicap (-4.5) between Brandon Nakashima and Nick Kyrgios in favour of the Australian.