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Brandon Nakashima Thriving Under Wayne Ferreira’s Coaching
No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
The best coach in professional tennis today may be Wayne Ferreira who has managed to spark instant success with three prominent players.
Starting in 2020, Ferreira became the coach of the struggling Frances Tiafoe (replaced Big Foe’s pal/coach Zack Evenden), until the end of the 2023 season when they would part ways over money. During that period Ferreira coached Tiafoe, the American rose from a ranking of 84 to win two titles and he became a top 10 player and Grand Slam semifinalist. After the split, Tiafoe’s results went down again.
Ferreira’s coaching services would join forces with Jack Draper on a trial basis, starting in May 2024, that would last four months, ending just before the 2024 US Open because Draper’s long time coach James Trotman didn’t want to share duties. The official reason was Jack only wanted one voice but tennis observers suspect the old coach didn’t like Ferreira getting too much credit which devalued his coaching credibility. Ferreira’s presence immediately piloted Draper to his first ATP title in June 2024 at Queens Club. Draper also defeated the world no. 1 Carlos Alcaraz at Queens. In four months Draper’s ranking shot up from 39 to 15.
Ferreira did a trial with Yosuke Watanuki during the 2025 Sunshine Double at BNP Paribas and Miami Open. He has also worked with Alexei Popyrin and Yibing Wu in 2023 but the Chinese player was plagued by injuries.
After some time away from the game, Ferreira has returned again to the ATP World Tour and once again he’s produced immediate positive results.
Since June 2026 Ferreira took over the controls of coaching Brandon Nakashima at Queens Club. During that time Nakashima won three matches at Queens beating Buse, Fucsovics, deMinaur before losing to Cerundolo in semis. At Wimbledon, Nakashima beat Pinnington Jones but lost second round to Struff 64 67 67 76 67. At Washington DC Nakashima got back on track an beat Etcheverry, Mensik and deMinaur again before losing to Fritz in semis 36 in the third.
The Ferreira-Nakashima momentum continued to build in Montreal 1000 where wins were scored vs Jodar, Darderi, Droguet, Rinderknech and Altmaier before losing to Shelton in the final 36 67.
At Cincinnati Open this week Nakashima avenged Fritz in the quarterfinal 64 in the third set and is now in the semi (will face Tiafoe).
The 25 year old Nakashima is now ranked 22 in the world, his career best ranking. Right now Nakashima is one of the hottest players in the ATP with Rafael Jodar. With Wayne Ferreira calling the shots, the chemistry has been nothing short of spectacular and you have to wonder how much higher they can ascend together.
Brandon Nakashima · Cincy Open · Wayne Ferreira
