The super series Japan Open starts tomorrow and the draws for the singles are out.

From a Brits perspective:

Mens singles - a 24 player field, Ben Bartram and Andrew Penney are in the first round against lower ranked opponents and should manage to get through those. Tokito Oda is top seed and 7 of the top 10 play, with Alfie and Gordon two of the top tenners missing.

Womens singles - a 19 player field; Lucy Shuker is our entrant, ranked 18 she plays Jinte Bos (ranked 19) in a fifty -
Fifty opening match. 6 of the top 10 go in the womens field

Quad singles - a 20 player field, with 8 of the top ten (Andy Lapthorne is missing), includes Greg Slade in the draw and he gets a bye to play 7th seeded Canadian, Robert Shaw, in the last 16.

The money in Munich is almost the same as Tokyo. Gustavo Fernandez also plays in an 8 player mens only field; top prize will be higher than Tokyo and overall entry stronger.

Less ranking points than Tokyo , and Oda could hardly miss Japan Open, but Munich is a good call for Alfie and Gordon 

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Monday 14th of April 2025 06:40:11 PM

In Japan, all our players exited the singles today. Doubles to come later.

The World Team Cup takes place in just under 3 weeks time, and the final list of entries is confirmed:

www.itftennis.com/media/14352/2025-world-group-entry-list-08042025.pdf

From a GB perspective, we are in all 4 events:

Mens (16 teams) - we are currently listed as top seeds, ahead of Spain and NL. Japan are down as 12th but I think these can change once the final rankings are known and are probably just based on the regional qualifiers not yet being slotted in on a ranking basis

Womens (12 teams) - 3rd seeds behind NL and France

Quad ( 8 teams) - 5th seeds with Turkiye at the top ( I notice Israel arent playing, not sure if they are banned in some way - the event is in Turkiye)

Juniors (8 teams) - currently listed as 6th seeds but should go up once the rankings are listed nearer the time

4 nations are in all 4 disciplines - GB, Japan, Brazil and Colombia

In Japan, Lucy Shuker moves into the doubles semis with partner, Anniek Van Koot; Andrew Penney and Greg Slade went out.

Lucy and Van Koot won the super series Cajun Classic and look a strong pair, they could be a threat for the French Open and Wimbledon titles. Worth keeping an eye on.

In Munich, play starts today. The organisers trailed the event around 3 players - Alfie, Gordon and Fernandez. Having Gordon and Fernandez play in round one seems a shame and it is a shame they couldnt have seeded more players to avoid it; but ITF rules presumably limited the seeds in an 8 player field to 2, Alfie and Fernandez.

JonH comes home wrote:

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In Munich, Alfie won a comfortable opener 6-1 6-3.

Gordon plays later

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 Gordon went down 3 and 2. 

In the semis, Alfie plays Belgian Joachim Gerard.