Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships •Third round •
completed
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The great performance of the day is to the credit of Arthur Fils! The Frenchman qualified for the second round of the Tokyo tournament, dismissing the American Taylor Fritz, seeded n°1 (6-4, 3-6, 6-3), Thursday morning, at the ‘Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo.
After having already beaten Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Alexander Zverev, Arthur Fils won this Thursday the fifth victory of his career against a member of the Top 10 in the world, for six defeats.
The massacre continues for the participants of the Laver Cup. After Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas a little earlier in the day, it is the turn of Taylor Fritz to take the door in Tokyo, for his first match on the ATP circuit since his US Open final.
Son to challenge another Grand Slam finalist
With 32 winning shots, Arthur Fils was very aggressive to overcome the American player, suffering on his second balls with only 38% of points won. The Frenchman was very efficient on serve with 10 aces and 74% of points won behind his first ball.
Arthur Fils, 24th ATP player in the world, will face Italian Matteo Berrettini in the second round of the Japanese tournament. This will be the first clash between the two men on the circuit.
The other posters of the first round in Tokyo (ATP 500, Ariake Colosseum, hard, 1,818,380 USD, results displayed from newest to oldest):
- Casper Ruud – Jordan Thompson: scheduled for Thursday
- Marin Cilic – Kei Nishikori : schedule jeudi
- Holger Rune (N.6) – Alejandro Tabilo : 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
- Christopher O’Connell (Q) – Tomas Martin Etcheverry : 6-4, 7-6 [5]
- Brandon Nakashima – Frances Tiafoe (N.7) : 7-5, 6-3
- Ben Shelton (N.8) – Reilly Opelka : 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
- Alex Michelsen (Q) – Stefanos Tsitsipas (N.4) : 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
- Tomas Machac – Alexei Popyrin : 6-3, 6-7 [5]7-5
- Yoshihito Nishioka (WC) – Felix Auger-Aliassime : 7-6 [5]3-6, 7-6 [5]
- Jack Draper – Mattia Bellucci (Q) : 6-4, 6-2
- Tommy Paul (N.5) – Matteo Arnaldi: 6-3, 6-2
- Ugo Humbert – Shintaro Mochizuki (WC) : 6-1, 6-2
- Hubert Hurkacz (N.2) – Marcos Giron: 6-4, 6-7 [5]6-4
- Matteo Berrettini – Botic van de Zandschulp (Q): 6-3, 6-4
- Mariano Navone – Luciano Darderi: 6-4, 6-4
