Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima 08/01/2025 Toronto Picks

Ben Shelton and Brandon Nakashima meet in the third round of the 2025 Toronto Masters. The match is scheduled for Friday, August 1. Here’s our Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima prediction. This preview will also include a Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima pick.

Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima Preview

Ben Shelton is the fourth seed at the Canadian Open and received a bye in the first round. The American began the tournament in the second round stage with a straight sets win over France’s Adrian Mannarino. The match took 17 games to decide. Shelton prevailed 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 6 minutes. Shelton broke first in the fourth game of the first set and consolidated that advantage until the eighth game, when he broke for a second time to seal the set.

In the second set, only one break was enough and it was Shelton who made that move for a 5-3 lead and fended a break back point while serving for the match. Overall, Shelton hit 24 winners to 23 unforced errors in the match. He accounted for 16 aces and four double faults. He landed 62% of first serves in play and won 90% of first serve points (28/31). Shelton won 63% of second serve points (12/19) and saved two break points. This is an improvement from his defeat to Alcaraz in the same stage when he last competed in Toronto. Shelton has made the quarterfinals in each of his last two tournaments and kicked off this swing with a semifinal run in Washington last week.

Brandon Nakashima is the 25th seed, making his fourth main draw appearance at the Canadian Open. Nakashima lost in the first round in his only previous visit to Toronto, but has secured his first win in the city this week, beating fellow American Ethan Quinn in straight sets. The match took 23 games to decide and lasted nearly two hours.

Nakashima won a tight opening set in which he had seven set points on Quinn’s serve at 5-4 up and then 6-5 up before he saved a Quinn set point in the tie-break to win it 8-6. Nakashima’s patience paid off when he broke Quinn at the start of the second set and would not give away that cushion for the remainder of the match, sealing a 7-6, 6-4 win. He hit 23 winners to 31 unforced errors. Nakashima accounted for 13 aces in the match and not a single double fault. He landed 64% of first serves in play and won 80% of first serve points (36/45). Nakashima saved both break points he faced on serve.

Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima Head-To-Head

Shelton and Nakashima have met four times on the ATP Tour. Shelton leads the head-to-head 4-0 and has not lost a single set, including in their two meetings earlier this season on hard courts.

Ben Shelton vs Brandon Nakashima Prediction

Shelton has a perfect record against Nakashima, but there have been some very close sets between them in all four meetings, with the first set easily clearing the over 11.5 games in all four matches. And with both players demonstrating supreme serving in their second-round matches this week, we could be looking at a first-set tie-break to separate them.