Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov both saw a clear start slipping away during a turbulent opening on Wednesday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
Taifoe suffered his first opening round Hard-Court loss of the season (10-1) due to qualifying match Marton Fucsovics, which fought for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory. The finalist of Tokyo from 2022 pressed hard in a Topsy-Turvy decision-maker characterized by three service pause, but Fucsovics won a series of bruises of Baseline to seal the upset.
Tokyo Debut pleasure! ?
Marton Fucsovics gets 8th seed from Tiafoe (3-6 6-1 7-5) to go to round 2 @japanopennisnisnisnis | #kinoshitajotennis pic.twitter.com/ycm4fiq1dw
– ATP Tour (@atptour) September 24, 2025
By improving to 3-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2head series with Tiafoe, Fucsovics climbed seven places to No. 51 in the PIF ATP Live ranking. The Hungarian won his third ATP Tour title in Winston-Salem last month and will continue his campaign in the Japanese capital against Brandon Nakashima or Jordan Thompson.
The Shapovalov exit previously met Daniel Altmaier, who scored for his fifth top 30 victory of the season with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph. Shapovalov – in his first outing since marry partner Mirjam Bjorlund – will strengthen his missed opportunities in the opening set.
The Canadian dropped four straight matches of 5-3 and missed four set points on return at 5-4 before Altmaier returned the momentum and ran to a 90-minute victory. The 27-year-old Altmaier is now about to have a new milestone: he is no. 49 in the PIF ATP Live ranking, only one shy of his career.
In other early action on day 1 in Tokyo, Matteo Berrettini achieved his first victory since May by going beyond Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-2. The Italian returned to action in Hangzhou last week after a injury hiatus of two and a half months, but fell in his opener for happy loser Dalibor Svrcina.
View extensive highlights of day 1 promotion in Tokyo:
Although the former world no. 6 Berrettini 28 hit Munar’s casual mistakes and did not look typically sharp, he was able to count on his aggressive game and overwhelmed the Spaniard with 32 winners. He also saved all eight breaking points with which he was confronted, according to Infosys ATP statistics, and will then be confronted with fourth seed Casper Ruud or Wild Card Shintaro Mochizuki at home.
Nuno Borges also moved up and gathered along Wild Card Yosuke Watanuki 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 for his personal best 25th victory of the season. Then in his debut campaign in Tokyo, the Portuguese put on a big collision with second seed Taylor Fritz or Gabriel Diallo, who will come across on Thursday.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
#Tiafoe #Shapovalov #stumbles #opening #day #shock #Tokyo