Tennis-Alcaraz overcomes teething trouble on tweaked serve to beat Michelsen in Tokyo

Carlos Alcaraz shrugged off minor wobbles on ​his retooled serve to dismantle unseeded ​American Alex Michelsen 7-6(1) 4-6 ‌6-1 and ​keep his Japan Open title defence on track while several leading players made first-round exits in Tokyo on Thursday. Alcaraz ‌saved three set points before clinching a see-sawing opening set with a strong display in the tie-break but continued to experiment with his new sped-up service motion and was ‌broken twice early in the next set.

The 23-year-old Spaniard, who had shown glimpses of ‌his best form en route to the US Open quarter-finals last month after his long injury layoff, recovered to move ahead but a double fault in the seventh game handed Michelsen a route back. Michelsen ⁠capitalised ​and kept his composure ⁠in a tense finish to the second set where a fortunate netcord winner left Alcaraz stranded at ⁠the baseline and helped the 22-year-old American force a decider.

A couple of breathtaking points gave ​Alcaraz a 2-0 lead in the final set and the seven-time Grand Slam champion ⁠used the launch pad to close out a comfortable victory on a day of big upsets in ⁠the ​ATP 500 tournament. The top seed's win came after third seed Taylor Fritz fell to qualifier Jaume Munar 6-7(7) 6-4 6-3, sixth seed Casper Ruud lost to ⁠Luciano Darderi 7-6(3) 6-3 and seventh seed Tommy Paul suffered a 6-1 6-2 defeat by ⁠Alejandro Tabilo.

Holger Rune, ⁠the former world number four who is stepping up his comeback from an Achilles injury, also crashed out following a 6-3 6-1 ‌loss to ‌Kyrian Jacquet.