Tokyo and Beijing, ATP 500 level events, get under way this week as players prepare for the Shanghai Masters starting on the 2nd October.
The Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, played four first round matches overnight but the draw for the China Open has only just been finalised including qualifiers and results will start to filter through in the next 24-hours.
Taylor Fritz, who has risen to No.7 in the latest world rankings, is the top seed in Tokyo with Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz at No.2 while Ben Shelton, the defending champion, is seeded at 8.
So far Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, Mariano Navone of Argentina, plus Frenchman Ugo Humbert have progressed into the second round having respectively defeated Botic van de Zandschulp, a Dutch qualifier, 6-3 6-4, Italy’s Luciano Darderi 6-4 6-4 and Japanese wildcard Shintaro Mochizuki 6-1 6-2.
Surprisingly a seed has also been in action on day one, namely Hurkacz, who had to dig deep to defeat Marcos Giron of the US 6-4 6-7(5) 6-4 and could well face Jack Draper in round two provided the Briton can get past an Italian qualifier, Mattia Bellucci in match due to be played tomorrow.
Meanwhile at the China Open in Beijing, the defending champion Jannik Sinner, the world No.1, is joined by his main rival Carlos Alcaraz as second seed, plus the two Russians, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev.
“I think I always try to improve,” said Sinner who has so far pocketed six titles this season, including two Majors (Australia and US Opens) said in his pre-tournament press conference.
“It doesn’t really matter the results I have, what I managed to achieve, I always try to understand myself and what I have to improve off the court and on the court, all these things.”
Grigor Dimitrov and Lorenzo Musetti, the a finalist at last weekend’s Chengdu Open finalist will also be in action in Beijing where Zhang Zhizhen, last weekend’s Hangzhou Open finalist, leads the home charge.
