Brandon Nakashima will meet Richard Gasquet in the First Round of the 2022 Florence Open. The match will be played on Tuesday October 11th, 2022.
Brandon Nakashima is the eighth seed here at the 2022 Florence Open and is ranked 46th in the world. The American has really come into his own this season, winning his first ATP title and breaking into the top 50. His huge game is well suited for this quick surface, with a big serve and groundstrokes making him very tough to contend with on these courts. He has a 33-23 record on the season and is making a case for himself to end the year with a bang, can the veteran Richard Gasquet stop him here?
Richard Gasquet is unseeded here at the Florence Open and the veteran Frenchman has been on a slow decline over the past few seasons as his career winds down. The former top 10 player now sits at #83, but remains a dangerous opponent due to his experience. He has found the going difficult on the ATP Tour recently and has dropped down to the Challenger Tour with limited success. His game is still solid but he tends to struggle with the more modern big hitters, of which Nakashima is a classic example. It’s looking like he will struggle here, and he will have to pull a rabbit out of his bag of tricks to get a result here.
This should be relatively straightforward for Brandon Nakashima. The youngster is stronger, faster and in better form than the struggling veteran and I expect him to overpower him with relative ease. Gasquet can make things interesting if Nakashima is wasteful, but he has played mature tennis for most of the year and that seems unlikely. Back Nakashima to win in two tight sets with confidence.