The first day of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships got underway today on 3rd October at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo. The tournament takes place alongside the Astana Open in Kazakhstan. Both the tournaments are ATP 500 level tournaments.
The pick of the round of 32 matches today was the clash between fourth seeded American Frances Tiafoe and Yasutaka Uchiyama. The French Open semi-finalist had a good outing as he progressed through to the next round as he beat the Japanese player in straight sets 6-3 6-4. The American broke twice, once each set and it was enough to seal the deal.
Fellow American and rising star Brandon Nakashima got the better of Shintaro Mochizuki as he won in straight sets 6-3 6-2. The American looked in fine touch as he broke the Japanese player’s serve three times in the match.
It was a good day for Spanish players Bernabe Zapata Miralles and Pedro Martinez as they both won their opening matches. Zapata Miralles overcame the challenge of home favorite Taro Daniel in a match that saw both sets go the distance 7-5 7-5. Pedro Martinez also dispatched his Australian opponent Alexei Popyrin in straight sets 7-5 6-4.
Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis was scheduled to play Wimbledon semi-finalist Cameron Norrie of Great Britain but the British player had to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. Kokkinakis is scheduled to play his round of 32 match against 9th seeded Croatian Borna Coric tomorrow. The Croatia won the Cincinnati Masters event back in August after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the finals.
Frances Tiafoe and Bernabe Zapata Miralles will meet in the round of 16 on the 5th of October.
Tomorrow’s schedule sees fifth seed Nick Kyrgios play for the first time since the US Open as he takes on Tseng Chun-hsin of Taiwan. Number one seed and US Open finalist Casper Ruud will take on Spaniard Jaume Munar. Sixth seeded Aussie Alex de Minaur takes on Kwon Soon-woo. Eighth seeded Dan Evans will take on Radu Albot. India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan will begin his outing in the main draw after coming through the qualifying event. He plays his first match against Japanese player Rio Noguchi.
Image credits: atptour.com
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