Cincinnati Open 2025: Alexander Zverev vs Brandon Nakashima preview, head-to-head, odds, prediction, and pick

Match Details

Fixture: (3) Alexander Zverev vs (27) Brandon Nakashima

Date: August 12, 2025

Tournament: 2025 Cincinnati Open

Round: Third Round (Round of 32)

Venue: Lindner Family Tennis Center, Mason, Ohio, USA

Category: ATP Masters 1000

Surface: Hard

Prize Money: $ 9,193,540

Live Telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Sky Sports | Canada - TSN

Alexander Zverev vs Brandon Nakashima preview

Third seed Alexander Zverev will face 27th seed and home favorite Brandon Nakashima in the third round of the 2025 Cincinnati Open.

Zverev has won 40 out of the 55 matches in 2025, with his sole title of the year coming at his home event in Munich. The German player also had runner-up finishes at the Australian Open and Stuttgart Open, losing against Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz, respectively.

On the hard courts, Zverev has a 16-5 record this year, with his best outing being at Melbourne. He also had a decent semifinal run in Toronto, losing 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4) against Karen Khachanov despite having match points against the Russian. At the Cincinnati Open, the third seed got a bye in the first round, following which he started with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Nishesh Basavareddy in the second round.

With semifinal finishes in Acapulco and Houston as his best results, Brandon Nakashima has a 26-21 win/loss record for the year. Barring those two semifinal runs, he has reached four quarterfinals, two of which have come on the hard courts of Delray Beach and Washington.

Nakashima began his North American hard-court swing by reaching the quarterfinal in Washington, losing 4-6, 4-6 against Alex de Minaur, and then lost 7-6 (8), 2-6, 6-7 (5) against Ben Shelton in the third round in Toronto. At the Cincinnati Open, he got a bye in the opening round and then won 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) against Alexander Blockx in the second round.

Alexander Zverev vs Brandon Nakashima head-to-head

Zverev has a 4-0 head-to-head record against Nakashima, winning 7-5, 6-4 in their latest encounter in Stuttgart this year.

Alexander Zverev vs Brandon Nakashima odds

Player Name	Moneyline	Handicap Bets	Total Games
Alexander Zverev	-325	-1.5 (-118)	Over 22.5 (-140)
Brandon Nakashima	+240	+1.5 (-120)	Under 22.5 (-102)

(Odds are sourced from BetMGM)

Alexander Zverev vs Brandon Nakashima prediction

With 15 titles from 22 finals, Zverev has a 69 percent win rate on hard courts in his career. He has a 13-8 win-loss record in Cincinnati, with his best result coming in 2021, when he won the title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Andrey Rublev in the final.

All of Nakashima's three career finals on the ATP Tour have come on the hard courts, including the only titles he has at San Diego in 2022. With his best performance this year, as he reached the third round, a feat he also accomplished last year, when he lost to Andrey Rublev.

Zverev is the favorite to win the upcoming match, as he is a former champion in Cincinnati and has a 100 percent win record against Nakashima.

Pick- Zverev to win in straight sets

About the author

Sagnik, a Mass Communication and Journalism graduate, is a tennis journalist at Sportskeeda. Before finding his spot in the tennis writing team, he worked as a junior content specialist for academic content writing firms for a couple of years.

Before putting out any information in the public domain, Sagnik makes sure that every element of his content is well-researched and backed with credible data so that there is no misinterpretation of facts or quotes and ethical standards are maintained. To do so, Sagnik follows reputed websites like the Tennis Channel and Tennis TV, and renowned journalists on social media.

He is a fan of former player Roger Federer, and just like his favorite player, Sagnik likes to bring perfection to his write-ups by providing concise and on-point content. Speaking of the ‘GOAT’ debate, Sagnik believes that it is a bit unfair to compare the legends of the game from different eras who have played on different terms. But if he were to pick one, he’d go for Novak Djokovic based on his tally of 24 Grand Slam titles.

When not writing about tennis and technically analyzing the sport, which he believes are his 'forte', Sagnik indulges in reading books.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua