An unfortunate shoulder injury sustained by Aleksandar Vukic meant that he and Alexei Popyrin had to withdraw from their first round doubles match in Tokyo against Michael Venus and Jamie Murray, and they were replaced by one of the losing pairs from the qualifying tournament, Seita Watanabe and Takeru Yuzuki.
Venus lost just the first point when he started the match, with the towering left-hander Yuzuki going next. He started with a double fault, and then had to watch as Murray hit a beautiful forehand half-lob return down the tramlines the next time he served to that side. He lost his third serve to Murray as well, but unfortunately that was one of the points where the streams played up. Watanabe saved the break point with a backhand volley at the net, but the deciding point went to Murray and Venus as well.
Murray then held to consolidate the break, and the pictures finally started behaving themselves. Watanabe served consecutive double faults to give away a break point, and Venus was kicking himself for not converting it when he ended a good short rally by hitting a forehand into the net cord – and this one bounced back. Murray took the deciding point, but Yuzuki smashed away a winning volley.
Venus had a serve called out in the next game, which was overruled by umpire Nacho Forcadell, but it didn’t make any difference because Venus still lost the point, although nice backhand volleys from Murray won the next two points to take the game. The only real highlight in the whole of the set came in the next game, when Watanabe hit a fabulous angled backhand volley to help his partner hold serve.
Murray then held to love, and a forehand volley from him through the middle of the court off Watanabe brought up three set points. Murray lost the first when his lobbed forehand return landed just over the baseline, and he lost the second when he, too, hit the net cord and saw the ball bounce back. Venus got the deciding point back in play, and Watanabe was forced to hit a forehand long to end the game and the set. They had been on court for 29 minutes.
Venus held to love to start the second set, but Yuzuki was in trouble straight away when he lost his first three points. Venus was forced into an error to save the first break point, and winning forehand volleys from Watanabe took them to deuce, where Venus lost the deciding point by hitting a forehand over the baseline. Murray would lose only four points on serve in the whole match, and none of them were in the next game.
Venus hit a beautiful inside-out forehand winner in the next game, with Yuzuki hitting a nice winning forehand volley before starting the next game from Venus with a fabulous backhand return down the tramlines. Two forced errors each came next, and Yuzuki converted the first break point with a cross-court forehand volley.
He started the next game with a service winner to Murray that must have only just touched his racquet, but he made sure that the serve two points later was an ace. From there, though, he hit forced, unforced and forced errors to lose the game and give the break straight back. Murray then held to love again, the shot of the game being a beautiful angled backhand volley from Venus.
Murray had his own 15 seconds in the limelight when he swung a beautiful forehand return of Watanabe’s serve back into the tramlines, but the Japanese pair didn’t lose any more points. Venus held to love, hitting his second ace, but that was nothing to what would come from Yuzuki in the next game. Venus finally got bat on ball, so to speak, hitting a beautiful backhand return down the singles sideline, but that came after Yuzuki had started the game with three aces – and he finished with another, acing Murray for the third time in the game.
Watanabe hit a beautiful inside-out forehand return off Murray which cannoned away off the Scot’s racquet, but the best rally of the match would come four points later. Yuzuki and Watanabe hit smash after smash, all of which were retrieved, mainly by Venus with moonballs, until the last went to Murray, and he mishit the ball straight up into the air on the 17th shot. That took them to deuce, but Venus won the deciding point with an overhead volley.
There were a couple of good rallies in the next game as Watanabe served to force the tie-break, he and Venus losing one each when they found the net, but he went on to hold serve comfortably. There was another great rally to start the tie-break, but the first eight points all went with serve. It wasn’t until Venus served his third point that we saw a mini-break, and that came from a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines by Yuzuki.
Venus repaid that show of spirit by immediately breaking back, hitting a fabulous backhand return down the singles sideline, and then a whole lot more points went with serve. That included the first match point for Venus and Murray at 7-6, but a cross-court forehand volley from Yuzuki off his partner’s serve took care of that.
The error came when Venus served his fifth point, Murray hitting a cross-court backhand volley far too casually, and it went well out of court. That gave Yuzuki and Watanabe a third set point, this time on their own serve, and Yuzuki made no mistake by acing Venus down the middle. The set had taken 56 minutes.
The match tie-break started bizarrely when Murray returned Yuzuki’s first serve with a forehand down the tramlines, but it had looped up and must have just touched Watanabe’s racquet before it landed. Watanabe got the mini-break straight back with a fabulous cross-court backhand return off Venus, but he served a double fault on his first point, and that was the beginning of the end.
Venus hit another beautiful backhand return down the singles sideline off Yuzuki, and aced Watanabe out wide before forcing Yuzuki into a return error. Yuzuki was forced to leave a forehand volley short to lose Watanabe’s first serve, and that gave Venus and Murray six match points. Only one was required, Murray hitting a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines, and the match was all over after an hour and 40 minutes. The final score was 6-2, 6-7 (8), 10-3.