McDonald upsets Nakashima in all-American Atlanta showdown

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mackenzie-mcdonald/mk66/overview'Mackenzie McDonald/a continues to round into form after a shoulder injury kept him out of ATP Tour action for several months earlier this season. Fresh off a quarter-final run in Newport mdash; his best result of 2024 mdash; the American scored an upset win against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a on Tuesday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/atlanta/6116/overview'Atlanta Open/a./p

pMcDonald knocked out the seventh seed 6-2, 6-4, improving to 4-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. The 29-year-old converted on all three of his break chances and saved all three break points against him, according to Infosys ATP Stats./p

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pThe win against the No. 55 in the PIF ATP Rankings is McDonald's best victory by that measure since he beat World No. 40 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/max-purcell/ph71/overview'Max Purcell/a last year in Tokyo. The former UCLA star earned a personal-best 33 wins in 2023; he is now 4-9 this year./p

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yoshihito-nishioka/n732/overview'Yoshihito Nishioka/a awaits McDonald in the second round after his 7-6(4), 6-3 win against American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zachary-svajda/s0k7/overview'Zachary Svajda/a on Monday./p

pAustralian lucky loser a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/adam-walton/w09e/overview'Adam Walton/a also scored on upset on Tuesday, beating sixth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/miomir-kecmanovic/ki95/overview'Miomir Kecmanovic/a 6-4, 6-4. Like McDonald, Walton saved all three break points against him in his Atlanta opener./p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Unbelievable first set for Mayot ✅ 7-6(9)a href="https://twitter.com/ATLOpenTennis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ATLOpenTennis/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AtlantaOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#AtlantaOpen/a a href="https://t.co/ktGOVY54oX"pic.twitter.com/ktGOVY54oX/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1815838249832657138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 23, 2024/a/blockquote

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pIn the most dramatic match of the day, French lucky loser a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/harold-mayot/m0g4/overview'Harold Mayot/a edged a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/borna-coric/cg80/overview'Borna Coric/a 7-6(9), 6-3. The Atlanta debutant picked up his second Top 100 in by beating the former World No. 12.nbsp;/p

pMayot saved two set points in the marathon first-set tie-break, after fighting off six break points in the opening set. Riding that momentum, 22-year-old broke twice in set two to seal the victory. He will next meet fourth-seeded Aussie a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jordan-thompson/tc61/overview'Jordan Thompson/a./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p