Upsets were the story of day two in Tokyo with three seeded players falling in their opening matches. However, top seed Stan Wawrinka and third seeded Gilles Simon did make it through to the second round unscathed.
Gasquet - Bautista Agut
Fourth seeded Richard Gasquet, fifth seed Kevin Anderson and 8th seed Grigor Dimitrov all headed out of Tokyo early after losing their first round matches on Tuesday. Gasquet and Anderson both looked rusty with the long layoff since the U.S. Open taking its toll. Gasquet had a tough assignment against Roberto Bautista-Agut who narrowly lost to him early in the year in Dubai in a third set tie break. In Tokyo, Bautista-Agut rallied after falling down a break in the opening set for a 6-4, 6-1 win. The Spaniard ran off four straight games in the first set after trailing 4-2 to pull out the win. In the second set, Gasquet offered little resistance as he dropped all four of his service games, and won just 48 percent of his service points. He blamed his poor play on lack of practice, telling reporters after the match, "I was tired after the US Open. I didn't practice too much. I need to practice more."
Anderson - Muller
Anderson looked as if he was still reminiscing about his U.S. Open quarterfinal run during his first round match against Gilles Muller. Anderson's usually stout serve was missing in action as the lefty from Luxembourg scored two service breaks in rolling to a 6-2 win in the first set. The fifth seed had trouble landing his first serve, at just 48 percent in the set, which gave Muller plenty of cracks at his second serve where the lefty won nine of 13 points. The second set started better for Anderson as he held comfortably early, but by the sixth game he had been broken again. Muller finished him off with a vicious first serve that won 92 percent of the points for the set to score the 6-3 win in the second.
Dimitrov - Paire
The roller coaster match of the day came as expected with 8th seed Grigor Dimitrov taking on Benoit Paire. The unseeded Frenchman saved 12 of 13 break points for the match as he pulled the upset 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Paire's first serve was on point the entire match as he dominated, winning 85 percent of the points. The 8th seed looked disheartened towards the end as he won just 47 percent of his service points in the final set. Dimitrov falls to 1-2 in his brief time with new coach Franco Davin after winning one and losing one in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Wawrinka And Simon Survive
Two seeds who managed to avoid the upset bug were top seed Stan Wawrinka and third seeded Gilles Simon. Wawrinka nearly blew the first set against Radek Stepanek as he was broken when serving for the set at 5-4, but after Stepanek evened the set with a hold, Wawrinka took the final two games to close out the first set, 7-5. The Swiss continued to use his serve as a big weapon in the second set en route to a 6-3 win. Wawrinka won 80 percent of his first serve points in the second set. He landed 74 percent of his first serves in for the set, making life difficult for the Czech. For the match, the top seed won 81 percent of his first serve points and crushed eleven aces. Afterwards, Wawrinka said he felt good and better than he did at this time last year, "Last year I was struggling a little bit to find my best level after the US Open. This year, I feel quite fresh."
Simon took on Mikhail Youzhny in the opening round. It was their second meeting this season with the Russian having beaten Simon this summer at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. This time, it was Simon who prevailed 6-4, 6-4. The third seed battled back from a break down in the opening set. The second set was a real struggle for the Frenchman as he took a 4-2 lead after breaking Youzhny, but gave that break right back. At 4-4, Simon nearly gave away another break as he was forced to save three break points for the hold. The next game, he got back into the Russian's serve and converted the second match point for the win. Simon punished Youzhny's second serve to score some key points as he won 18 of 28 points off Youzhny's second. He also saved four of six break points, while the Russian only saved one of five.
Other Results In Round One
Elsewhere around the Japan Open on day two, the comeback of the day came from American Austin Krajicek. The lefty trailed Matthew Ebden by a set and was down 5-3 in the second set before rallying to take the second and third sets in tie breaks for a 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) win. Nick Kyrgios also came back from finding himself down a set, dropping it to Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Kyrgios eventually won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3, with the Aussie thumping 12 aces in the match. In other action, Marcos Baghdatis won his match against Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-1 and both Jeremy Chardy and Steve Johnson moved on via retirement from their oppponents. Johnson was up a set and a break on Bernard Tomic when Tomic retired due to illness. Chardy led Sam Groth 6-3, 2-0 when Groth quit after reaggrivating an ankle injury.
Day Three Schedule
The five remaining seeds in Tokyo will all be back in action on Wednesday. In second round play, top seed Stan Wawrinka gets a chance to avenge his loss here last year to Tatsuma Ito. Gilles Simon will have a tough match against talented youngster Jiri Vesely and second seed Kei Nishikori battles Sam Querrey. Both sixth seed Marin Cilic and seventh seed Feliciano Lopez hit the court for the first time this week. Cilic goes against qualifier Donald Young with Lopez set to take on Joao Sousa. The other singles match of the day will feature unseeded players Jeremy Chardy and Gilles Muller.