Kazakhstan's top seed Alexander Bublik (22) defeated Brandon Nakashima (19) of the United States 6:7 (7:9), 6:3, 7:6 (7:5) in the second round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters 2026. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

In September, the Kazakh and the American of Japanese-Vietnamese descent played for Team World at the Laver Cup. In the doubles match, they lost to Norway's Casper Ruud and Germany's Alexander Zverev 4:6, 6:7 (7:9).

First set: Nakashima's luck in the tiebreak

In the first set of the head-to-head match, the opponents held their serves, and in the key moments of the tiebreak, Nakashima had the luck. After saving two set points, Brandon took the set 9:7.

Second set: Bublik's break

After breaking his racket and receiving a warning from the chair umpire, Bublik secured a break in the second set. Taking his opponent's serve to love in the eighth game, the Kazakh confirmed it 6:3.

Third set: Bublik's tiebreak win

The events of the third set unfolded according to the scenario of the first. The only difference was that the tiebreak went to Bublik. 6:7 (7:9), 6:3, 7:6 (7:5) in 2 hours 27 minutes. Aces – 22:12, double faults – 2:2, total points won – 110:91.

Next opponent

For a place in the quarterfinals, Bublik will face either the tournament's top seed Zverev (2) or France's Quentin Halys (48).

Doubles

Bublik (208) also played in the doubles at the Shanghai Masters. Together with Ben Shelton (125) of the USA, Alexander lost to the Belarusian-Russian pair Ivan Liutarevich (91)/Daniil Medvedev (352) 4:6, 3:6.

About the tournament

The Rolex Shanghai Masters (sponsor name) is an ATP-1000 men's tennis tournament with a prize fund of $9.4 million. The only Masters-1000 series event outside North America and Europe took its current form in 2009.

Record holder for wins on Shanghai hard courts Novak Djokovic (8) has won here four times. At the current tournament, the Serb lost in his first match to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz (34) 4:6, 3:6.

Three times the main prize was won by Britain's Andy Murray, twice by Switzerland's Roger Federer. In addition, Russians Nikolay Davydenko and Daniil Medvedev, the aforementioned Pole Hurkacz and Italy's Jannik Sinner left with the trophy.

Defending champion

The defending champion, Monaco's Valentin Vacherot, defeated France's Arthur Rinderknech in last year's final 4:6, 6:3, 6:3. We note that in the second round of Shanghai 2025, Vacherot, as a qualifier, beat our Bublik 3:6, 6:3, 6:4.