Nakashima Claims First Challenger Title in Orlando; Medvedev, Mektic and Koolhof are ATP Finals Champions; Former Gator Crawford Wins UTR $20K in Cancun

Nineteen-year-old Brandon Nakashima won his first Challenger title today at the ATP Challenger 80 at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona Florida, beating No. 4 seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India 6-3, 6-4. Nakashima, who was unseeded, got the only two breaks of the match, in the sixth game of the first set and the third game of the second set. 

Gunneswaran, a 31-year-old left-hander, never felt out of the match, with the depth of his shots often keeping Nakashima from dictating play, but he failed to convert any of his eight break points. With Nakashima serving at 4-3 in the second set, he went down 0-40, and faced another break point later in the game, but Gunneswaran couldn't win a big point when it mattered, and Nakashima closed out his title with little drama after that.

Nakashima, who spent a semester at the University of Virginia early in 2019, did not lose a set all week, beating three seeds en route to the title: top seed Thiago Montiero of Brazil, No. 8 seed Mackenzie McDonald and Gunneswaran, who reached the Cary Challenger final last week.

Nakashima, the 2017 Kalamazoo 16s champion, will move to 166 in the ATP rankings, having begun the year at 364, and now awaits word on the status of the Australian Open.

The Nitto ATP Finals concluded today in London, with Daniil Medvedev of Russia defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 for the biggest title of his career. Medvedev, who will finish the season at No. 4 in the ATP rankings, is the first player to beat the No. 1 (Novak Djokovic), No. 2 (Rafael Nadal) and No. 3(Thiem) seeds in the same ATP Finals tournament. The 24-year-old Medvedev, who won the Paris Masters earlier this month, has seven Top 10 wins this month.  For more on the men's singles final, see this BBC article.

The ATP Finals champions in doubles are No. 5 seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands, who defeated No. 7 seeds Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-2, 4-6, 10-5 in the final. It is the first title for the pair, who joined forces at the beginning of this year, but they had reached the US Open final together back in September. For more on their win, see this article from the ATP.

The $20,000 UTR Pro Series tournament in Cancun Mexico concluded today, with former University of Florida star Oliver Crawford taking first place. After finishing undefeated in his round robin group, Crawford defeated Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia in the semifinals 6-3, 6-3, and former UCLA star Gage Brymer 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Brymer, who has also finished atop his round robin group, beat Maximiliano Estevez of Argentina 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. 

Crawford, who didn't drop a set in his six victories, won $4000; Brymer earned $2200.

I believe the Cancun series was supposed to be three weeks with $20,000 prize money each week, but this coming week's event is now listed as $6000 and I don't see a third event on the schedule. Crawford is not entered this week, with Brymer the top seed in a 16-player field.