For the vast majority of the year, tennis is an individual sport (of course there’s doubles but I don’t take much interest in that form) but there are a few times each season when it’s a team game as the best players represent their country in the World Cup of Tennis. It may be a squad of five players but one big star player can almost single handedly carry a nation through the competition. Would that be the case with Japan?

The Billie Jean King Cup took place last weekend in various locations around the world including Tokyo where Japan were up against Kazakhstan. This tournament, as well as the men’s equivalent (known as the Davis Cup) has a very different style and atmosphere to the Grand Slam tournaments as the spectators can use musical instruments, clappers, cheer sticks or even sing! It’s basically a football-style atmosphere and it was one that I was very interested in experiencing once I found out about this match at the start of this year.

When I booked my ticket back in February the inclusion of four-time Grand Slam winner  and tennis icon Naomi Osaka hadn’t been announced. I wasn’t at all expecting one of my big sporting heroes to be involved at all as she hasn’t played in the tournament for four years so it was a massive bonus for me when news of her partipation at Ariake Coliseum in Koto-ku was revealed. Her star appeal must’ve helped put some more bums on seats but it could’ve been far more had the organisers promoted the event better.

The only occasion I’ve seen Osaka in action was actually the last time she played in Tokyo back in September 2022 at the Toray Pan Pacific Open tournament. It didn’t quite go as planned then but it did make for a quite interesting anecdote! On that occasion the weather outside was absolutely horrendous, and this time it was rainy too which put paid to my idea of cycling there. It had cleared up by the time I arrived at the nearest station but the roof remained closed as was the case for my last visit to the arena for the world street skateboarding championships in December.

Inside, the atmosphere was already building and all the Kazakh fans were congregated in one block and their various trumpets and chants brought a lot of colour and atmosphere to the occasion. I was a little apprehensive beforehand about the often-passive Japanese but I needn’t have worried as a fanatical group in the corner were fantastic in their support whilst the cheer sticks (usually given out for free at most sports but sold here for 200 yen!) of other fans in the arena made it a memorable and noisy atmosphere. One group of fans had large cardboard cut-out faces of all the Japanese team and I had to get a photo taken with the Naomi Osaka one.

Just after 2:00 pm the teams entered the fray with the Kazakhstani side coming out to the tune of the Imperial March from Star Wars. The players and coaches then stood facing my direction for the respective national anthems which were very contrasting in their length. The Japanese one seemed very quick but the opposition one went on and on which did actually remind me of a scene in the ‘Borat‘ (2006) movie where Sasha Baron Cohen’s fictional Khazakstani comedy character sang a completely made-up anthem.

With the pre-match formalities out of the way it was time for the action. Nao Hibino (currently ranked at 79 in the world) was first up for Japan against Anna Danilina and when she lost the first two points on her serve I was already starting to think it might not be her day. That’s what tennis is like though and the mentality of the players is so important.

Hibino recovered to win that first game, and then broke serve to go 2-0 up. There was no looking back after that and some wonderfully accurate shots saw her romp to victory in just under an hour with a 6-1, 6-0 scoreline. Japan were 1-0 up as it is a team game remember!

Just after 3:45 pm, Osaka (currently ranked over 100 places lower than Hibino) and her opponent Yulia Putintseva came on court and the atmosphere, which had been really good up to that point, ramped up a notch. A lot has been said over the years about Osaka and she still very much divides the population with many unable to accept that she is Japanese. Thankfully none of that nonsense mattered at all to those sitting courtside who were delighted to see her play.

The first set followed the pattern of the previous match and I was beginning to worry that it may all be over too quickly for my liking. However, her opponent pushed her much closer than I’d have liked in that second set resulting in a tense tie-breaker.

Overall, her gameplay was still a little rusty with some shots lacking the accuracy of past days but thankfully her serve got her out of trouble a few times with speeds of over 180 kilometres per hour recorded again and again. The crowd gasped in awe throughout every time her powerful serves resulted in aces. It happened 15 times in total with an incredble three in the opening game of the second set.

9 of the best! I took way too many pictures!

After 82 minutes on court it was a relief for both Osaka and the Japan fans to hear “Game, set and match” called by the umpire. High fives were in order from Osaka for all of the Japan coaching staff and teammates as the crowd cheered and applauded.

She acknowledged the home support, hit some balls into the stand for the fans and the usual slighly awkward on-court post-match interview followed.

It began in Japanese before she switched to English. She complimented the atmosphere and even said it was one of the best she’d ever played in.

To her credit she then went round much of the arena meeting those fans who were lucky enough to be in the more expensive seats at the front. Those of us in the cheap seats were not allowed into that courtside area and could only watch on and feel envious of those fans getting items signed or having selfies taken with her.

Next time she’s in Tokyo I may have to splash out on a more expensive seat and then hope and pray that she wins the match and is in the mood to meet and greet fans.

Final Score: Japan 2-0 Kazakhstan

• The teams returned a day later where Nao Hibino was the star of the show beating Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 to clinch the match for Japan. It meant that Osaka’s later singles match against Anna Danilina didn’t get played which will have no doubt frustrated many of the spectators hoping to see her play. The doubles match did still go ahead though with Danilina and Zhibeb Kulambayeva teaming up to defeat Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama 7-6, 3-6, 11-9.

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