The 13th time proved the charm for Go Soeda.

The former World No. 47 had lost all 12 of his main draw matches at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships entering his first-round clash with German Jan-Lennard Struff on Monday at Ariake Tennis Park. But finally, at age 35, Soeda found his Tokyo breakthrough.

“I didn’t think a lot about winning in the first set or the second set, but in the final set at 4-3, 5-3, I was thinking about winning and I got really tight,” Soeda said. “I’m really happy. I didn’t win this tournament in 18 years. I was playing since 2001, so I’m very happy to win for the first time here.”

In four of Soeda’s 12 opening-round losses here, the home favourite battled his way to a deciding set. But he was never able to find a way through. It wasn’t that Soeda had not enjoyed success on the ATP Tour — he made the semi-finals in Chennai and Atlanta in 2012 — but Soeda could never solve the Tokyo puzzle.

But the joy of victory was well worth the wait, especially considering he has his two-year-old son, Mito, with him at this ATP 500 event. Shortly after his triumph, Soeda was able to see him.

“After the match he said, ‘You are so cool!’” Soeda recalled. “So I’m really happy. I don’t know if he’ll remember or not, but it’s cool.

“It’s very special, very positive now. I can’t bring them every week, but this week especially is very special [to have my family here].”

This was Soeda’s first win at an ATP Tour tournament since 2015 Washington.

“It’s a long time, four years. But I’m very happy to win here. My Ranking isn’t so high, but I’m trying. [My] confidence was a little down, but I’m trying every year. Maybe coming next year, my confidence is coming back. I hope next year it’s the Top 100,” Soeda said. “Maybe I played too much in Challengers and then win or lose and then I’m thinking too much for four or five years. I need to change from now and hope next year to play 250 or 500s more and if I win, it’s very good… Now I’m feeling like Top 90, 80, so I’m hoping to get to the Top 100.”

Soeda could get a huge opportunity in the second round if he plays top seed Novak Djokovic. It would be his first meeting against a World No. 1. Ironically, Soeda is 0-12 against Top 10 opposition.

The highest-ranked player he has previously faced is World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, and that came in Tokyo eight years ago.

“I want to play him. I’ve never played against a World No. 1. So if I play him, I’ll be really happy. I’ll try my best like the Japanese rugby team,” Soeda said of his nation’s rugby team, which upset powerhouse Ireland on Sunday. “I’m really excited. That time I played Nadal, I was really nervous. Maybe next time, too, but I really enjoy to play [against the top players].”

It’s been a banner week for Japanese tennis, with four players from the country reaching the second round. One of them is Yasutaka Uchiyama, who defeated third seed Benoit Paire on Tuesday. He was excited to see Soeda have his moment in the hometown spotlight.

“I was happy, too, because he’s a great friend of mine. I celebrated with him after the match and I’m really happy,” Uchiyama said. “He was playing amazing. He was playing really good at the baseline. At the end of the match, I think he controlled the game.”

Even though Soeda is 35, he feels he has plenty of tennis left in him. And more than two hours after his victory on Monday, fans were still shouting from the top of the Colosseum down to the player area where Soeda was soaking in the moment with his loved ones.

“I really enjoy to play now, more than before,” Soeda said. “I’m feeling my technique is better than before because I think about tennis. I really enjoy it now.”

Entering the year, Yasutaka Uchiyama had beaten just one Top 50 opponent in his career. But after upsetting Benoit Paire on Tuesday, the Japanese player owns two Top 25 victories.

Uchiyama, a qualifier, ousted the fourth seed 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, joining countryman Go Soeda in the second round. Uchiyama’s only previous main draw victory in Tokyo came against Croat Franko Skugor two years ago.

“Of course I’m happy after winning the first round,” Uchiyama said. “But at the same time, I don’t want to feel happy too much. I want to focus on the next round. I’m happy for now, and then I want to focus on tomorrow.”

The World No. 136, who is at his career-high ATP Ranking, needed just 54 minutes to advance after also winning in straight sets in both of his qualifying matches. Uchiyama lost only two first-serve points (22/24) in the match, breaking 2015 Tokyo finalist Paire’s serve on four of the six opportunities he earned.

“I played very good service games again today. I didn’t drop my serve and that was the key,” Uchiyama said. “I had just a few chances to break him. I think he felt a little bit frustrated with the return games, and that was a key.”

Uchiyama carried momentum into his home tournament after winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title of the year earlier this month in Shanghai. In January, the Japanese made his first ATP Tour quarter-final in Brisbane, where he upset Brit Kyle Edmund.

Uchiyama will look to continue his Tokyo run against Moldovan Radu Albot or Serbian Filip Krajinovic.

Dominic Thiem this week controls his destiny when it comes to qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fourth consecutive year. Thiem will book his return ticket to The O2 in London if he reaches the China Open final in Beijing.

The 23-year-old Austrian is currently in fifth place in the ATP Race To London, with 3,845 points, and next in line to qualify for the season-ending championships, to be held 10-17 November. The top four players in the Race – Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Daniil Medvedev – have already secured their places. In Beijing, the top-seeded Thiem opens against Richard Gasquet, who leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals champion, is in sixth place in the Race (3,160 points) and also will be looking to bolster his qualification prospects in China. The 20-year-old Greek is seeking his maiden London appearance and needs to make the semi-finals to be able to add any points to his Race tally.

Only 315 points separate seventh place and 12^th place in the Race, meaning plenty of players could make moves this week with 500 points up for grabs in Tokyo and Beijing, respectively.

Seventh-placed Roberto Bautista Agut (2,395 points) is the fifth seed in Beijing and faces American Sam Querrey. Bautista Agut is seeking his debut showing in London and will add Race points if he makes the quarter-finals.

Eighth-placed Matteo Berrettini (2,185 points) meets former World No. 1 Andy Murray in Beijing as the Italian looks to continue to build off his US Open semi-final run. Berrettini will add points to his Race tally if he beats Murray.

Ninth-placed Kei Nishikori (2,180) is nursing an injured elbow, but Gael Monfils (10^th, 2,125), reigning champion Alexander Zverev (11^th, 2,120) and 2017 finalist David Goffin (12^th, 2,080) all have opportunities to make up ground this week.

Monfils faces John Isner in Beijing. The second-seeded Zverev, after beating Frances Tiafoe in his opener, will face #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round. Zverev needs to make the quarter-finals to be able to improve his Race position.

And Goffin, the 2017 Tokyo champion, will play Chengdu Open champion Pablo Carreno Busta in round one in Japan. Goffin will add points if he beats the Spaniard.

Novak Djokovic says his shoulder is “fine”, and he’s ready to continue his climb up the all-time list of most weeks spent at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings this week at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.

On Monday, Djokovic (271 weeks) passed Ivan Lendl (270) for third place on the all-time leaderboard. Now only Djokovic’s childhood idol, Pete Sampras (286), and all-time leader Roger Federer (310) remain in front of the Serbian.

“I understand why people want to talk about record-breaking, but I feel like we all have our own path, and we all have different careers and just different journeys through life and through tennis,” Djokovic said.

“I want to be able to build my own path and build my own legacy and focus on that rather than breaking someone else’s record. Of course, I care about history. Of course, I want to be the best I can possibly be in the history of this sport. But again, my main attention or focus goes to fuelling my own journey and creating my own legacy.”

Djokovic is making his debut at the ATP 500 event and is attempting to become the 11^th World No. 1 to win the Tokyo title.

“I’m excited to be in Tokyo,” he said. “I’ll hopefully get a chance to see a little bit of this country… and get to know the culture that I respect a lot and has some wonderful things that have been exported outside of this country and around the world.”

The Serbian has already experienced some of Japanese culture as he practised sumo wrestling on Monday.

More On Djokovic In Tokyo
Djokovic In The Dohyo: Novak Goes Sumo In Tokyo
 Draw Preview: Learn Djokovic’s Path In Tokyo
Djokovic, Coric Thrill Japanese Fans On ATP Sunday

“I have to say that I’m very impressed with the way people treat each other and how nice they are, how humble they are, simple and kind. I feel very welcomed in Tokyo,” Djokovic said. “This is a really big tournament, a very successful tournament historically, so I look forward to hopefully having a successful singles week this week.”

Djokovic is battling Rafael Nadal to finish as the year-end No. 1 for a record-equalling sixth time (2011-12, ’14-15, ’18). Nadal currently leads Djokovic by 1,960 points in the ATP Race To London with only five weeks remaining in the ATP Tour regular season.

The 32-year-old Djokovic last competed at the US Open, retiring from his fourth-round match against Swiss Stan Wawrinka down two sets to zero because of a left shoulder injury. But Djokovic, who also played doubles on Monday, said he’s ready for a full week.

“I wanted to see how [my shoulder] feels during the matchplay. Obviously doubles is quite different from singles. But you’re still playing an official match, so you still feel the nerves and you battle on the court,” Djokovic said. “It’s quite different from playing a practice set or anything in practice, really.

“It seems like my shoulder is fine,” said Djokovic, who faces Aussie qualifier Alexei Popyrin in his opener. “I’m hoping that that’s going to be the case this week as well for singles.”

Alexander Zverev stepped up his bid to clinch a place at the Nitto ATP Finals, where he is the defending champion, by sweeping into the China Open second round on Monday.

The second-seeded German beat American wild card Frances Tiafoe for the fifth time in six FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings 6-3, 6-2 in 70 minutes.

Zverev is currently in 11th position in the 2019 ATP Race To London, but only 65 points behind eighth-placed Italian Matteo Berrettini (2,185 points), with five weeks left in the regular ATP Tour season. Four singles spots are left for the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.

With a strong service performance, Zverev recorded his 35th match win of the year by breaking Tiafoe for 3-1 lead in the first set and in the third and fifth games of the second set. He will next play Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for two British players. Chinese wild card Zhizhen Zhang knocked out last year’s semi-finalist Kyle Edmund 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5), but Daniel Evans beat wild card Zhe Li 6-3, 6-4. Qualifier Cameron Norrie progressed when leading 7-6(5), 1-0 when Cristian Garin retired due to a right ankle injury.

One year ago, top-seeded Marin Cilic lost his first-round match at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. On Monday, the Croat showed that he was determined not to suffer a disappointing early loss in Tokyo again.

Cilic battled hard to move past home favourite Yuichi Sugita 6-4, 6-4, reaching the second round after one hour and 14 minutes. The 31-year-old has lost his opening match at a tournament just once since May.

“I really, really like Yuichi. We’ve known each other since 2005. We played juniors together. He’s been coming to [former Cilic coach] Bob Brett’s academy for so many years, where I practised for more than nine years. We practised so many times, had so many practice sessions together,” Cilic said. “He’s an amazing guy in terms of he’s extremely humble, hard-working, too.”

The sixth seed was clean on serve throughout the match, facing only one break point, which he erased. Cilic won 88 per cent of his first-serve points, losing just five points on his first delivery.

The World No. 30 was opportunistic as well, converting the two break points he earned on Colosseum, ousting Sugita in their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Cilic will next face 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung, who rallied past Italian Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 11 minutes.

Cilic is currently at his lowest ATP Ranking since February 2014. But he has shown signs of his best form, defeating John Isner en route to the fourth round of the US Open, where he fell against eventual champion Rafael Nadal. Cilic is pursuing his first title in Asia.

The Croat leads Chung 3-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with their most recent match coming at 2016 Brisbane, when Chung was only 19.

Did You Know?
Every season from 2008-18, Cilic captured at least one ATP Tour title. Without a trophy to his name so far this year, the Croat is trying to extend that streak to 12 straight seasons.

Colosseum in Ariake Tennis Park could have been named Nishioka World Monday evening.

That’s because the Tokyo crowd urged Japanese No. 2 Yoshihito Nishioka to a 7-5, 6-3 victory against Portugal’s Joao Sousa in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. It marks Nishioka’s first victory here on his fourth attempt.

“This is my first win in this event, so I’m very happy for this,” Nishioka said. “Not many big tournaments have [a crowd like] here. This is the biggest tournament in Japan, so I’m very happy to play good tennis for many fans. I feel very good.”

Sousa broke at 4-4 in the opener to earn a chance to serve for the first set. But Nishioka maintained his focus, claiming his first two breaks of the match to take the set and with it, the momentum.

“The many people helped me, they gave me the power. That’s a very big reason for me playing my best tennis today,” Nishioka said. “I had a little bit of pressure on me, but many people cheered for me, so I think the home crowd was very special for a moment like this.”

Nishioka will next play fifth seed Lucas Pouille, who ousted Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-3 to reach the second round of the ATP 500 tournament on his Tokyo debut. Pouille had trailed Hurkacz 0-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, but he got his revenge to break even with a 19-19 record on the season.

Pouille has shown flashes of strong form on hard courts throughout the year, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the Moselle Open, as well as the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

The 25-year-old used his dominant first serve to power his way to a one-hour, 14-minute victory, winning 83 per cent of his first-serve points in the match. He also did well to work his way into Hurkacz’s service games, earning eight break points across the two sets.

Did You Know?
Pouille has captured one of his five ATP Tour titles at the ATP 500-level. In 2017, the Frenchman triumphed at the Erste Bank Open.

No. 22, Alex de Minaur, +9
The #NextGenATP Australian picked up his third ATP Tour trophy of the season at the Huajin Securities Zhuhai Championships. De Minaur, who has also lifted titles in Sydney and Atlanta this year, defeated John Millman, former World No. 1 Andy Murray, fourth seed Borna Coric and second seed Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the championship match in Zhuhai. Following his final victory against Adrian Mannarino, the 20-year-old leaps nine spots to No. 22 in the ATP Race To London. Read Final Report.

No. 10, Gael Monfils, +2
The Frenchman enters the Top 10 in the ATP Race To London after reaching the quarter-finals in Zhuhai. Monfils defeated Cameron Norrie in three sets at the inauguaral edition of the ATP 250 event, before falling to Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain. The 2016 Nitto ATP Finals qualifier is just 60 points behind Matteo Berrettini, who currently occupies the eighth and final qualification position.

No. 31, Pablo Carreno Busta, +17
The 28-year-old captured his first ATP Tour crown since May 2017 following five straight victories at the Chengdu Open. Carreno Busta overcame Radu Albot, Benoit Paire, Cristian Garin and Denis Shapovalov to reach the championship match, where he outlasted Alexander Bublik in a final-set tie-break victory. The Spaniard, who appeared as an alternate at the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals, soars 17 spots to No. 31 in the ATP Race To London. Read Final Report.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers
No. 41, Alexander Bublik, +14
No. 51, Adrian Mannarino, +12
No. 75, Mikael Ymer, +16
No. 85, Tommy Paul, +11
No. 98, Damir Dzumhur, +10

The ATP Tour travels to the capital cities of China and Japan for the second week of the Asian Swing. The China Open and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships offer players the opportunity to earn up to 500 ATP Rankings points in the ATP Race To London and the ATP Race To Milan.

Five Top 10 stars — including Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev — headline in Beijing, while World No. 1 Novak Djokovic prepares for his tournament debut in Tokyo alongside Borna Coric and David Goffin.

Beijing Talking Points

Andy Murray joins defending champion Nikoloz Basilashvili as the former titlists in the China Open field. Murray, who defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the 2016 Beijing final, claimed his second tour-level singles victory of the year – and his first since the first week of the year in Brisbane – by defeating Tennys Sandgren in Zhuhai last week. That avenged a loss to the American in Murray’s prior ATP Tour singles match, at Winston-Salem in August. Murray lost in the second round in Zhuhai to eventual champion Alex de Minaur.

No. 1 seed Dominic Thiem is seeking his first victory in a single-elimination main draw since a third-round win against Marin Cilic at the Coupe Rogers in August. Since that match, Thiem is 2-4 at tour-level, with the two wins coming at team events: Davis Cup group play and Laver Cup.

Read Beijing Draw Preview

Three of the Top 5 players in the ATP Race To Milan are in the Beijing main draw: Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 1), Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 2), and Frances Tiafoe (No. 5). Tsitsipas has already qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals and currently occupies sixth position in the ATP Race To London, which determines the eight qualifiers for the Nitto ATP Finals.

2016 runner-up Dimitrov jumped from No. 78 to No. 25 in the ATP Rankings after his run to the US Open semi-finals last month. The Bulgarian would claim his 300th career tour-level win if he defeats Andrey Rublev in the first round on Monday.

Tokyo Talking Points

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is making his first appearance at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships this year. Djokovic is aiming to win a title in a tournament debut for the 10th time in his career.

David Goffin is the lone former champion in the draw. He has made the final in both of his previous appearances, falling to Nick Kyrgios in the 2016 championship match before defeating Adrian Mannarino for the title in 2017. The Belgian is 9-1 overall in Tokyo.

#NextGenATP Australian Alex de Minaur comes into Tokyo fresh from winning his third singles title of the year in Zhuhai on Sunday. The 20-year-old lost his first two ATP Tour singles finals last year, but has gone 3-0 in finals this season, also hoisting trophies in Atlanta and in his hometown of Sydney.

Read Tokyo Draw Preview

For the second week in a row, #NextGenATP contender Miomir Kecmanovic will face a fellow 20-year-old in the first round of an ATP Tour event. Last week in Zhuhai, Kecmanovic advanced past Casper Ruud; this week, the Serb will meet Denis Shapovalov in the opening round. Shapovalov is currently No. 4 in the ATP Race To Milan, while Kecmanovic is No. 7. (De Minaur is No. 3 and Ruud is No. 6).

Ben McLachlan is the two-time defending doubles champion in Tokyo. The 27-year-old won his first ATP Tour doubles title in 2017 alongside Yasutaka Uchiyama and then captured the crown again last year with Jan-Lennard Struff. McLachlan pairs with Luke Bambridge this year, as he goes for the hat trick with three different partners.