The air of Tokyo is good for Matteo Berrettini, who on his debut at the ATP 500 tournament in the Japanese capital reacted after a terrible first set to beat the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 1-6, 7-6, 6-4. The Roman n.43 in the world will face the Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo (n.58) in the round of 16, where the other Italian on the court today, Luciano Darderi, also qualified, thanks to a prestigious victory over the n.6 in the ranking, Casper Ruud, beaten 7-6, 6-3. The Italian-Argentine n.20 ATP will face the French Kyrian Jaquet, a less demanding match than the one awaiting Matteo Arnaldi, winner yesterday over the Japanese Rei Sakamoto but who will face Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard, former world no.1, took three sets to get the better of the American (7-6, 4-6, 6-1) and only changed gear in the third match. The rain in Tokyo «prevented me from training on an outdoor field until this morning’s warm-up – said Alcaraz to explain his difficulties -. Here the ground is quite slow, and it was a bit frustrating not being able to express my style of play, not being able to play aggressively.” On the hard court of the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japanese Kei Nishikori wrote the last page of his tennis history, beaten with a double 6-4 by the American Frances Tiafoe. Finalist at the 2014 US Open and Olympic bronze medalist at Rio 2016, with fourth place at the ATP as the best career ranking, the almost 37-year-old is hanging up his racket after 19 years on the circuit, where he won 12 titles.
«Playing here is always a special moment – declared Nishikori during a ceremony organized on the field after the match -. I’m proud of not giving up and playing until the end,” he added with a smile, holding back tears. From Tokyo to Beijing, where Italtennis lost its only representative, Flavio Cobolli. The world no.7 lost 6-3, 6-2 to Roman Safiullin (no.84). The Russian took off in the early stages of both sets, then effortlessly defended his serves to eliminate the blue. ATP n.2, Alex Zverev, made his debut in the tournament, trying to make the most of the wait for Jannik Sinner’s return. The German beat the British Cameron Norrie in two sets (7-6, 6-4), saying he was very satisfied with his game: “I didn’t think I would play well, given that I’ve been here for two days and come from an indoor tournament. It was a high-level match.” Zverev, winner of Roland Garros and the US Open this year, also expressed his opinion in the press conference against the proposal to reduce the duration of the Grand Slam matches, at least for the first rounds, by switching to the ‘best-of-three’ formula set’. “I don’t know a single player who would like to play the best of three sets,” he said. “It’s the most difficult feat to accomplish in tennis precisely because you play the best of five, and then it’s history.”