Last year, during the Japan Open, Carlos Alcaraz had to deal with jet lag, an ankle-injury scare, and a 30-minute rain delay prior to serving for the first set. He nonetheless managed to beat Sebastian Baez in straight sets before winning his next four matches to claim the title. This time around, as Alcaraz continued to experiment with his new sped-up service motion, the weather conditions presented another challenge for the defending champion.

Persistent rain in Tokyo meant Alcaraz had to train indoors during his first days in the city, leaving him unable to hit outdoors until the warm-up immediately before his opening-round match against Alex Michelsen. So when he finally stepped onto Ariake Colosseum with its retractable roof open, Alcaraz quickly realized that the conditions were very different from those he had experienced indoors.

“I couldn’t train outdoors until this morning’s warm-up, and it had been a long time since I’d played any matches on outdoor courts,” he said in the post-match interview. “I’d trained on indoor courts, but the feeling was completely different. The ball gets bigger, and I think the court is quite a bit slower than the indoor one, so it was tough to adapt to those conditions and adjust my game. It frustrated me a bit not to be able to unleash my tennis, my playing style, being aggressive, because the conditions wouldn’t let me.”

That frustration makes more sense when you consider how little recent match experience Alcaraz had with open-air conditions. All five of his men’s singles matches in New York were played at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the retractable roof was in use during his matches, and both of his outings at the Laver Cup, where he went undefeated for Team Europe, were held indoors as well, at The O2 in London.

From there, he flew a long distance to Tokyo, where inconsistency in conditions threw him off a little.

“The same thing has happened to the players who competed in the Laver Cup and came here, since we arrived quite late,” he said. “During the days we were here, it was raining, and we had to train on covered courts. Arriving today and encountering so much humidity, heat, and totally different conditions made it very difficult to play and manage everything we went through during the match.”

Twelve Laver Cup participants were present in Japan and went a combined 5-9. Whether London’s stretch affected their performance is not a black-and-white discussion, but the idea is still something to chew on.

Alcaraz’s opponent didn’t make things easy, either. Michelsen was able to push Alcaraz on the back foot with three set points in the opening set, but only for the Spaniard to save all three and dominate the tiebreak 7-1.  

He then built a 4-2 lead in the second set while simultaneously trying out a reworked, quicker service motion, before his serve wobbled badly enough to drop four straight games and hand Michelsen the set. This was the second time Alcaraz lost a set at the Japan Open. The top seed finally settled the match in a decider, breaking twice to close it out comfortably to win 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-1.

The victory extended his winning streak at ATP 500-level to 17 matches and kept his Tokyo title defense alive on a day of upsets, as he became the only seeded player from his section of the draw to advance to the second round.

Third seed Taylor Fritz was pushed past two hours by qualifier Jaume Munar before going down 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-3. Casper Ruud, seeded sixth, also failed to make it through, losing 7-6(3), 6-3 to Luciano Darderi. Tommy Paul had an even tougher afternoon, as Alejandro Tabilo raced past the seventh seed 6-1, 6-2. Holger Rune’s comeback also suffered another setback. The former world No. 4, still working his way back after an Achilles injury, was beaten 6-3, 6-1 by Kyrian Jacquet.

That said, if one is to go by former British number one Annabel Croft’s words, then the Tokyo victory over Michelsen was proof enough that Alcaraz might have an edge over the rest of the field as the season unfolds.

“Normally, by this time in the season, a lot of players are trying to get those extra points to get the rankings ahead for next year, also heading toward end-of-season championships as well. But a lot of players are often exhausted, spent so much emotional energy as well as the physical side of things. But [Carlos] Alcaraz is going to be very, very fresh,” said Croft.

This was Alcaraz’s first ATP tournament since returning from his four-month wrist-injury layoff at the US Open. As a result, he has played fewer matches than the other top-10 players in 2026.

“He really got his act together in that final set, and he’s really brought the joy again. That was something he said before he had the break with the wrist problem. He said he was looking to try and find more joy on the court again. I think we’re certainly seeing that in abundance. His tennis is really looking so good,” Croft added.

In the second round, Roland-Garros semi-finalist Matteo Arnaldi will be waiting for the No.3, marking their third career meeting, with Alcaraz holding a 2-0 edge. Both matches were on North American hard courts, with the latest at Indian Wells in 2024. Alcaraz had to fight back after dropping the opening set before eventually winning 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-1. The Alcaraz-Arnaldi winner will then meet the winner of Denis Shapovalov and Alejandro Tabilo in the next round.