Brandon Nakashima hasn't yet made the inroads he wants on the ATP Tour, though the reason why not remains a mystery. He has a fantastic and repeatable serve, but that hasn't translated to success at majors or Masters 1000s. His second-round opponent in the 2026 Citi Open, Jakub Mensik, has had relative success, though.
That includes winning the Miami Open in 2025, beating Novak Djokovic while doing so. Some might have assumed that would launch the career of the young player, but so far, that has not been the case. Sometimes, consistency is difficult, and both Mensik and Nakashima have struggled with that.
That wasn't necessarily the case in their Washington, DC match, however. While neither was absolutely perfect, both performed well enough to win the match. Whoever won might be headed toward a deep run at the tournament, and deservingly so.
Brandon Nakashima defeats Jakub Mensik in the second round of the 2026 Citi Open
The first set saw Nakashima make more than twice as many unforced errors as winners, but he played better in the bigger moments. He pushed through in the tie-break 7-5. With a slight uptick in form, he would probably sweep through the second set.
Instead, it was Mensik who raised his form. He stopped getting himself into trouble with as many double faults (he had four in set one, but just one in the second set), and he took advantage of the one opportunity he had to break. That was all he needed to even the match by taking the second set 6-3.
This led to the kind of third set that tennis fans watching wanted. Each player held serve confidently, winning more than 90 percent of their first serves. Nakashima had more chances to capitalize on Mensik's second serve, but couldn't come through.
At 4-all and with Mensik serving, Nakashima got to deuce a couple of times but couldn't ever get to a break point. Nearly the reverse happened in the next game, but just one deuce and Nakashima got the hold. A tense match was somehow getting even more stressful for the players.
With Mensik trying to stay in the match at 4-5 and at 30-all, Nakashima came up with two brilliant points. On the first, he hit a drop shot cross-court that Mensik raced down and returned in kind, but the American was able to reach the ball and hit a winner down the line. On break and match point, Nakashima was able to come up with a fierce cross-court winner, and he won the set 6-4.
Brandon Nakashima will next face the winner of an all-Australian match between top-seeded Alex de Minaur and rising star Cruz Hewitt, son of Lleyton. An already entertaining Citi Open will be made more so by that quarterfinal battle.
