Taylor Fritz, Alex De Minaur Moves into round two in Tokyo

Alex De Minaur and Taylor Fritz boosted their Torin chances with first round victories in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Alex De Minaur dug deep and defeated British Jack Draper 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(1) in three hours and four minutes to reach the second round at the

The 21-year-old came from a break down in the second set and broke qualifier Draper’s serve to close out the match at 5-4 in the third set.

The World No. 13 locked in from the baseline and started to pull the tiring Draper from corner to corner to improve to 13-4 in opening-round matches this year.

“I think whenever someone is struggling at the end it makes it much harder to finish off,” De Minaur said. “Because you can’t focus on what you want to and you just try to make him play as many balls as possible and then he was just playing free. I think this match was won on attitude and fitness. Happy to get the win and still be alive.”

Chasing his second title of the season, De Minaur will need a deep run in Tokyo to further increase his chances of making his debut at the prestigious year-end event. If his direct rivals above him (Tommy Paul 12th, Hubert Hurkacz 11th, Casper Ruud 10th, Taylor Fritz 9th), fall early, De Minaur could climb to ninth by lifting the trophy.

The fourth seed will next face Diego Schwartzman after the Argentine earned his 250th tour-level win.

Top seed Fritz followed De Minaur onto court and moved past Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-3 in the latest chapter of the pair’s long-running Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry.

“It was really close to lose the first set. I was thinking it was going to be a three-setter,” Fritz said. “I was lucky to get the break back in the first and then I felt my level picked up and I started playing a lot more smoothly.”

The 25-year-old, who reached the semi-finals on debut in Turin last year will next face Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki.

In other action, Cristian Garin beat Japan wild card Sho Shimabukuro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, while Alexei Popyrin upset Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-2.