Alex de Minaur’s title defence at the Washington Open has ended after he was beaten in the quarter-finals by Brandon Nakashima.
The Australian top seed, who was bidding to defend a title on the Tour for the second time in his career, fell 7-6(5), 6-4. It is the third time in four meetings that de Minaur has lost to Nakashima, who is currently 4-20 against top 10 players in his career. He was seeking his 30th Tour-level win of 2026.
“He came out with some great serving, a lot of first serves,” de Minaur said afterwards.
“I played at a high level. I just threw in two pretty awful games on my serve.
“It’s a little bit frustrating, but you live and you learn.”
De Minaur admits the biggest issue was his low break point conversion rate, which was 1-for-7. He won 65% of his service points but produced 26 unforced errors against 17 winners.
“I think it comes down to that,” de Minaur commented. “Obviously I had more chances than he did, more break points, but all credit to him. He came out with some great serving, a lot of first serves. The only second serve that he gave me on a break point I broke him, and that was early in the match.”
33rd-ranked Nakashima is through to his 13th ATP semi-final and fourth this season. He has won one title so far in his career, which was at the 2022 San Diego Open.
Awaiting Nakashima in the last four will be third seed Taylor Fritz, who shrugged off an injury scare to outlast Alex Michelsen 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(6). The American saved a match point during the decisive tiebreaker to seal victory.
During the early stages of the third set, Fritz received a medical timeout after appearing to tweak his left knee. In recent months, he has also been troubled by tendonitis on his other knee.
“I had the exact same thing happen to me in Dallas on my right knee,” Fritz explained.
“Like exact same injury, like same spot, super sharp pain.
“Because of how it was in Dallas, I felt really confident that I just needed to see the physio. I needed to work on it a little bit and then play, like, a game or two, and it would start to just get better, because that’s what happened at Dallas. It kind of just — I tweak it. It’s super sharp, feels really weird, and then it kind of just goes away.”
In the other section of the draw, Spain’s Rafael Jodar bounced back from a set down to defeat Lorenzo Musetti 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. He will next play Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, who stunned second seed Ben Shelton 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
