US OPEN

August 30, 2021

Brandon Nakashima

Press Conference

B. NAKASHIMA/J. Isner

7-6, 7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Would you give us a sense of your thoughts on the match, a big win, round one.

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, I mean, it was great out there. The atmosphere, two Americans playing out there on a big court like that. It was great, a great feeling to be out there.

Also really happy with the way I played today. Against him, it's very tough, especially on the return games, to get some breaks and opportunities. But I just told myself I just got to try to take care of my service games as much as possible, just try to take every opportunity I could get out there.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You played him two times before this. Did you learn a lot? Was the serve more readable?

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, I think we both know each other's games really well now going into this match. It's always tough against his serve, no matter how many times you play against him.

But, you know, I saw some of his tendencies from the past couple matches, kind of saw what he did and didn't like to do out there. Just tried to use that to my advantage as much as possible.

Q. Could you talk about some of your developmental years. Did you play at the San Diego Racquet Club? Talk about that.

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, I started playing tennis when I was about three-and-a-half years old with my grandfather. He just kind of took me out to a local park and just started feeding me balls for fun.

Growing up in San Diego, I did have a lot of coaches growing up that helped me a lot with kind of different parts of my game at different ages.

But, yeah, Angel Lopez was one of them at San Diego Racquet Club. I remember going there a couple times during the week when I was younger, kind of getting some lessons from him with the technique in that regard.

But there's a lot of different coaches out in San Diego that has helped me with my development in those junior years.

Q. (No microphone.)

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: No, I didn't really train there too much. I think I played a few junior tournaments there once in a while, but not really too much, I would say.

Q. What happened with Pat Cash? You're not together now. What did you learn from him?

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, it was a great experience working with him. We spent some time together last year. I think it was great for my game. He just kind of gave me his insights on tennis.

We worked a lot together on the practice court with coming forward, with transition, net game. I think it definitely has helped me back then and also now. I definitely think I'm feeling more comfortable out there coming forward.

Even though we ended it end of last year, I think I'm always going to be grateful for all his help.

Q. If you could share, what are your hopes? How high do you think you can go? What are your hopes?

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, I think right now it's just keep improving as much as possible, developing my game. Hopefully I would like to become No. 1 in the world one day, win all the slams.

I think it's a long journey ahead of me. At this point I think developing my game is important right now. I think the results will come if I put the hard work on the practice court.

Q. Do you have a favorite US Open moment that you can recall?

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: I think the first time I came here was when I played the juniors for the first time. I think I was 16 years old, coming here for the first time.

It was such a great feeling. I was super excited just to be a part of it, just to be on the grounds here. Even to play in the juniors event on these courts was such an amazing feeling.

I think I'll always remember that. I think those experiences for the first time being here and the past few years also, I think it's helped me be more comfortable at these courts.

Q. After juniors here in 2019 you were just barely inside the top 1000. Since then you've played a lot of challengers, a lot of qualifiers at the slams. How intense is the competition for you at the challenger level? How much did it help your development? What do you think has enabled you to make these steps quickly?

BRANDON NAKASHIMA: Yeah, I think the futures and challenger level is tough. Those guys are grinding a lot, going from tournament to tournament. It's not always the nicest conditions out there.

Those guys are grinders and scrappers. They try to get to that next level with these ATP events. I think for me playing those challengers and futures has definitely helped me with my game, kind of experiencing those different situations out there, those different conditions.

But these ATPs and Grand Slams, of course, are a lot nicer. So I think playing in these higher-level events is really cool for me.