Alcaraz plays Fritz in the final of the Japan Open

After turning his ankle in the first round against Sebastian Baez, Alcaraz showed that he did not have major problems in Tokyo, easily winning against Zizou Bergs and Brandon Nakashima. But before the challenge named Casper Ruud, the number one seed had difficulty in the first set. Alcaraz's movement was somewhat uncomfortable, making 15 self-inflicted errors and losing 3-6.

Before losing the pivotal game, Alcaraz had four break-points in Ruud's previous service games but could not take advantage. He shouted loudly in frustration when he lost the set to his Norwegian opponent. "I had a lot of opportunities in the first set, but I missed them all. That made me angry with myself, " Alcaraz explained about the screams in the first set.

The start of the second set was shaky when he let his opponent have a break point in the first game, but Alcaraz soon came back and won the game with the ball. He firmly maintained the service games by achieving a first and second ball ratio of over 83%, thereby going straight to a 6-3 victory in this set.

The third set scenario is similar to the second set, when Ruud lost the service game right after missing the opportunity to win the service game. Letting Alcaraz advance, the fourth seed could not catch up and accepted a 4-6 defeat in the deciding set.

In the final, Alcaraz met Taylor Fritz again, who had just defeated him at the Laver Cup in San Francisco last week. That was Alcaraz's first loss to the American player after four encounters. In the previous semi-final, Fritz overcame compatriot Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, largely thanks to his good serving form with 13 aces.

In Beijing, Jannik Sinner reached the semi-finals after defeating Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 7-5. In set two, the world's number two player lost a pivotal game, but won three consecutive games at the end of the set to turn the tables. Sinner will meet Alex De Minaur in the semi-finals.

Also participating in the fourth round of the strongest players at the China Open is Learner Tien. The young Vietnamese-American star defeated higher-rated opponents Francesco Cerundolo, Flavio Cobolli and Lorenzo Musetti one after another to enter the semi-finals against Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev.