For the first half of my life living in the UK, tennis was something that happened for two weeks a year when Wimbledon came around each summer. There was the occasional foray into other random tournaments thanks to Transworld Sport on Channel 4 early on weekend mornings in the early 90s but basically Wimbledon equalled tennis for me.

When I moved to Australia, and then Japan, other tournaments came more on my radar, particularly the other three Grand Slams. No doubt this was all helped by Andy Murray, the G.O.A.T. of British tennis, who was as successful as could be in an era featuring Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Nowadays I follow the sport pretty much all year round (it really is a long season!) and take up pretty much any chance to watch it live when it’s on in Tokyo. Earlier this year I saw the Japanese ladies team (featuring Naomi Osaka) play in the Billie Jean King Cup, and the women’s Toray Pan Pacific Open has been a staple of my sporting year for well over a decade now but I had never been to the equivalent men’s tournament!

That all changed last week when I finally went to see the Japan men’s open, known these days as the Kinoshita Open. For some reason this year’s tournament didn’t finish with the final at the weekend, and instead ran from Wednesday (September 25th ) till Tuesday (October 1st). I went on the third day, and was joined by my friend Yohei who was last seen on Tokyo Fox at the 2023 T. League women’s play-off final followed by a football match involving a team inspired by a Japanese cartoon hero.

Britain’s Jack Draper is one of the rising stars of men’s tennis having won one ATP Tour title and reached the semi-finals of the US Open thus far in 2024. The order of play began at 11:00 am with his match against Hubert Hurkacz of Poland who has a current world ranking of eight. Naturally, I wanted to see this one but so did Yohei too which I didn’t expect!

It was only on entering the place that I realised our tickets were only for the afternoon session as I booked them so long ago and had forgotten all about the separation of afternoon and evening sessions which is a fairly new thing for Japanese tournaments.

When Draper won the first three points of the opening game on his opponents serve I was trying to not get too excited. Rightly so as it proved to be a false dawn as Hurkacz fought back to win that game.

It ended up being a really tight first set with both players slogging it out with plenty of big hits mixed in with some great aces and a fair amount of wonderfully excecuted drop shots.

Britains’s highest ranked player (#20) eventually broke serve and took the first set 6-4. The second set followed a similar close pattern with Draper breaking serve once for another 6-4 win. Game, set and match to Draper who must’ve noticed my British flag as he took the crowd applause at the end. As is customary for the winner, he signed four match balls and hit them into the stands.

I thought I was way too far up in the stands to be in the reckoning as I waved my flag in celebration more than actually wanting the ball. Yohei warned me that it was actually coming my way but I had both hands on my flag! It bounced on the row in front and then rolled past me before Yohei grabbed it just before a couple of other guys could get it. I congratulated him but he very kindly offered it to me. I inititally refused as he was the one who’d got it but after he insisted a couple of times that I have it I finally accepted it and thanked him.

During that match Yohei disappeared for a few games to go and get some food as he decided against buying anything in the convenience store near the station. Big mistake as it cost him a whopping 1300 yen for a kebab which he said didn’t even taste that great!

We moved seats for the next match between Mariano Navone (ARG) and Ben Shelton (USA) but neither of us really liked watching it from that angle so found yet another viewing point.

This was a similar match in terms of how close it was. Shelton withstood the guns of Navone and took the match 6-4, 6-3.

There was one more doubles match available to us on our ticket but that wasn’t starting for another hour. Had it been on immediately afterwards we may have been tempted to see some of it and so we decided to see if anything was happening on the outer court. With the roof on in the main arena we weren’t too sure about the outdoor conditions. It was drizzling and so only a few games were played later that day but we had long gone by then!

A fortnight earlier and the weather was very different! On a boiling hot day I met up with my friend Mostyn for the second day of the Davis Cup clash between Japan and Colombia.

The atmosphere at the BJK Cup in March was so impressive that I was keen to sample something similar again so snapped up some tickets as soon as they went on sale. It was a good job I did as Mostyn turned up the previous day to be greeted by a sold-out sign! Day two of this Davis Cup match wasn’t quite sold out but it was the busiest I’ve ever seen it by some way.

The atmosphere was pretty good but not at the levels of the BJK Cup which may have been due to the Kazakh fans creating a great spectacle with their musical instruments, clappers, cheer sticks and singing. The Japanese hardcore fans more than played their part too but sadly there were very few Colombian fans present at this one to help reach those previous levels. It was of course better than the usual atmosphere at regular events.

At the start of play Japan were already 2-0 up from the first day. The doubles match was an epic one that went to three sets (6-7, 6-2, 6-3) with Colombia edging it to reduce the deficit. The next match featured Yoshihito Nishioka who is Japan’s highest ranked men’s player at 54.

As this match went on I didn’t feel so well. Having been in the sunshine for a few hours before the tennis I was feeling hot and tired, and had a bit of a headache. We were sat at the very back and just behind us was a stone ledge so I had a lie-down!

I felt a bit better after a short sleep, and watched a few more games but as it went deep into the second set and looked like a deciding third set would be necessary, I decided to make my exit as I wasn’t focused on the tennis or even really enjoying it then. My absence coincided with Nishioka’s fightback and he eventually won the match 7-5, 6-4 to give Japan victory.

Final Score: Japan 3-1 Colombia

Click here to read ‘Naomi Osaka Is The Star Attraction In Tokyo As Japan Compete In The World Cup Of Tennis’

Click here to read ‘A Brit Finally Plays At Tokyo’s Top Tennis Tournament & I Got To Meet Her!’

Click here to read ‘I Finally Got To See Naomi Osaka Play Tennis But It Didn’t Quite Go To Plan!!’

Bonus: Back at the end of August, I attended a match where the tennis is played on a table! This was my second time to see these two sides face each other in a T. League match. Whilst it was good to see a couple of Paris 2024 Olympic stars in action, it really did not compare to the previous occasion last year but that’s not too surprising as that was a showpiece occasion.

Click here to read ‘How Many Olympic Sports Did I See Live In The 18 Month Build Up To Paris 2024?’