There were plenty of outstanding winning shots in the doubles final at the Japan Open in Tokyo, but the vast majority came from the Australian pair of Rinky Hijikata and Max Purcell as they ramped up the pressure against Michael Venus and Jamie Murray in a battle of unseeded pairs. The first highlight, though, came when Venus served the opening game, Murray winning a great rally with a fabulous overhead backhand volley. I did wonder about how the speed gun in Tokyo works when I saw that the first serve fault from Venus on the final point of the game registered at 232 kilometres an hour, which is truly unbelievable! I saw a couple of other faults in the 220s as well, but those numbers seemed awfully high for someone who doesn’t normally get much over 200.
Murray hit a beautiful backhand volley in the next game as well, where Purcell was taken to deuce after Hijikata pushed a forehand volley into the net. Murray’s backhand return of the deciding point went wide, and then he had to watch Hijikata hit two fabulous shots in his own service game. The first was a fabulous cross-court backhand winner to end a good short rally before a beautiful inside-out forehand return took them to deuce, but he couldn’t replicate the shot on the deciding point. Hijikata finished his first service game with an ace before the second game from Venus ended with three great shots in a row. The first was a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines from Purcell off a 194 km/h second serve, and Hijikata followed with a beautiful backhand return off one that was nearly as quick. That took them to deuce, but it was Murray who won the deciding point with a beautiful angled forehand volley.
Murray hit a beautiful cross-court forehand volley off Purcell in the next game, but unforced errors from Venus and himself gave away break points when he served again, and Hijikata converted the first with a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines. Purcell hit the same shot off Venus, but everyone held safely from there to the end of the set, which arrived after 41 minutes when Purcell hit a forehand volley through the middle of the court.
The second set started badly for Venus and Murray when the New Zealander lost his serve with a forehand volley into the net on the deciding point. Hijikata was taken to deuce as well, but was then able to force Venus into a return error. As if losing the first game wasn’t bad enough, Murray was broken as well, hitting his second double fault in the game to lose another deciding point. Purcell held comfortably to give his team five games in a row before Venus dropped back to deuce from 40-0 with three fabulous returns of serve in a row. They didn’t get the fourth, Purcell’s forehand on the deciding point hitting the net cord and bouncing back. Hijikata then held comfortably as well, which meant Murray had to do the same to keep his team in the match.
Hijikata won the first point with a beautiful cross-court backhand lob, and Purcell took the third with a fabulous cross-court forehand return, but another double fault took the score to deuce, and gave Hijikata and Purcell a Championship point. It was fitting that the player of the final should hit the winning shot, Hijikata firing a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines to end the match after an hour and 12 minutes. The final score was 6-4, 6-1.
Although they lost the final, Venus and Murray have done enough to get to eighth place in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin. Unlike the women’s race, however, there are still several tournaments to come on the men’s side over the next two weeks, with 17 teams still mathematically having a chance to secure one of those eight places.