Second seeded Kei Nishikori needed three sets to dispatch of talented 18-year old rising star Borna Coric. The win was his 13th in his last 14 matches at the Japan Open over the last four years.

Coric Shocks Early, Fades Out
Kei Nishikori's home crowd in Tokyo was shocked in the opening game as the second seed came out flat on serve and was immediately broken by Borna Coric for a 1-0 lead. The talented teenager would then struggle in his own service game as Nishikori looked to break right back. An epic second game saw five deuces and four break points before Coric steadied and held for a 2-0 lead. Nishikori continued his poor start in the third game as he was broken again. Coric rolled from there to take the opening set 6-2, in 48 minutes. Nishikori struggled to get his first serve in, landing just 46 percent. That forced him into 14 second serves that Coric pounded for nine points. Despite the lopsided score line, the points won in the set were nearly even with Coric winning 33 to Nishikori's 30.

Although still struggling to land his first serve in the second set, Nishikori set out to attack Coric's serve and got off to a perfect spot as he held his serve and broke Coric for a 2-0 lead. Nishikori would break the teenager twice in his three service games for a quick turnaround to even the match at one set each. Nishikori won 59 percent of Coric's service points in the second set. The Croat landed just 45 percent of his first serves, which allowed the second seed to win nine of 12 points on his second serve.

The third set saw Nishikori improve to his best serving display as he won 14 of 16 first serve points. Coric struggled right away as Nishikori secured a break in the opening game and rolled to a quick 2-0 lead. Nishikori would score another late break to go up 5-2 and then use some big serves to close out the match with a 6-2 win in the third set. The defending champ said to reporters after the match that he knew what needed to be done after dropping the opening set, "He made it hard for me at the start. I knew what I was doing wrong and it was a question of cutting down on the errors."

Three Others Advance To Round Two
Elsewhere in Tokyo, the first singles match of the tournament featured a pair of Japanese wild cards as Tatsuma Ito rallied from a set down to defeat Yoshihito Nishioka 3-6, 6-0, 7-5. The win could set up Ito with a rematch of last year's second round stunner against top seed Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka opens against Radek Stepanek. Wild card Jiri Vesely got off to a good start with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Yasutaka Uchiyama, where Vesely saved seven of eight break points to escape with the win. American Sam Querrey also advanced to the second round as he outdueled Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6 (5), 6-4. It was Querrey's third straight win over Dolgopolov and second this season- he beat the Ukrainian this summer on grass in Nottingham.

Day Two Schedule
A huge slate of action is scheduled for the second day of the Japan Open. Five of the eight seeds will be in action. That includes top seed Stan Wawrinka who will take on Radek Stepanek. Wawrinka has not played since withdrawing from the Moselle Open with an ankle injury. The other seeds in action include 8th seed Grigor Dimitrov against Benoit Paire, 5th seed Kevin Anderson dueling with Gilles Muller, third seed Gilles Simon taking on qualifier Mikhail Youzhny and fourth seed Richard Gasquet tangling with Roberto Bautista-Agut.