Brandon Nakashima has played a heavy schedule since the start of 2024, and his physical level seems to have dropped sharply in the final stages of 2025. He was bageled by Kamil Majchrzak in the opening round at the Shanghai Masters and offered little resistance in his 6-7, 1-6 loss to Fabian Marozsan in Almaty last week.
Last year, he also appeared completely off both physically and mentally in the final weeks of the season, losing six of his last seven matches. It will be interesting to see if he can avoid a similar finish this year. During the European indoor swing in 2024, he managed only one win, which came here in Vienna against Tommy Paul.
Although Nakashima has enjoyed a successful 2025, highlighted by several quarterfinal-or-better results and a career-high ranking of #29, he has been disappointing on indoor hard courts, a surface where he has historically thrived, winning 12 matches in 2024. So far in 2025, he has played only three indoor matches and lost two of them.
Luciano Darderi has also had a highly intense 2025 season and seems to have experienced some physical slowdown in recent weeks, which has affected his performance and results. This was evident in his recent 3-6, 3-6 loss to the inexperienced Shintaro Mochizuki in the opening round in Almaty last week.
Adding to the challenge is that indoor courts remain a relatively unfamiliar setting for the Argentine-born Italian. He has played only seven matches on indoor hard courts in his career, losing six of them. On the positive side, his sole indoor win came at this very venue in Vienna last year, where he defeated local favorite Dominic Thiem in straight sets.
Head-to-head: Luciano Darderi leads 1-0. While neither player appears to be at their peak fitness at the moment, Brandon Nakashima is the more experienced and superior player on hard courts, particularly indoors. He is the clear favorite here and has a strong chance to avenge his previous defeat to Darderi on clay in Hamburg earlier this year.
