Japan Open Tennis Championships - Tokyo

An ATP 500 on outdoor hard in Tokyo, clustered with the other Asian stops before Shanghai. The DecoTurf gives a true bounce and a clean strike-through, which rewards flat hitting. Sets go with the serve, holds outweigh breaks and tiebreaks come often, so the totals run long rather than the upsets piling up. The big-serving first-strike baseliner suits it. Best of three.