Munar's Tokyo run rolls on as seeds tumble at the Japan Open

Jaume Munar is turning the Kinoshita Group Japan Open into his own week. One day after knocking out third seed Taylor Fritz, the 29-year-old Spaniard dismantled Portugal's Jaime Faria 6-1, 6-1 on Friday to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 event in Tokyo. His run caps an opening round in which the seeded players had a very bad time.

A ruthless follow-up against Faria

After his three-hour battle with Fritz, Munar faced the risk of a letdown. There wasn't one. According to the match statistics on Tennis.com, he broke Faria's serve six times from seven chances, landed 63 per cent of his first serves and won 83 per cent of the points behind them. Faria found only 49 per cent of his first serves and never got a foothold in the match.

Faria had arrived with momentum of his own: he came through qualifying with wins over Shintaro Mochizuki and Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, then beat Arthur Fery 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round. The two players had split their previous two meetings, but on Friday it was entirely one-way traffic.

The Fritz upset that set it up

Munar, who also came through qualifying according to Flashscore, beat Fritz 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday. It was his first win over the American in three meetings, and it came after he wasted six set points in the opening set. The ATP Tour reported that Fritz, the 2022 Tokyo champion, looked physically compromised throughout, often bending over between points and receiving treatment early in the second set. Munar saved seven of the eight break points he faced over two hours and 57 minutes.

"Huge battle today. He is a great player and I have a lot of respect for him," Munar said afterwards, according to the ATP. "I was just trying to keep focus on my serve and my side of the court."

Seeds fall across the draw

Fritz was far from alone. Sixth seed Casper Ruud lost 7-6(3), 6-3 to Luciano Darderi, and seventh seed Tommy Paul won only three games against Alejandro Tabilo, going down 6-1, 6-2. Fourth seed Rafael Jódar was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by Vallejo. Ugo Humbert beat fifth seed Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-2 without facing a break point.

Holger Rune's first ATP match since October of last year, after his Achilles injury, also ended quickly. Kyrian Jacquet beat the Dane 6-3, 6-1.

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Alcaraz survives, Tiafoe ends an era

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz avoided the carnage, but not easily. The top seed beat Alex Michelsen 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-1 while still adjusting to a new serve technique and slow, damp conditions after days of rain in Tokyo. "It was a little bit frustrating, not being able to play my game," Alcaraz said, according to Flashscore.

Second seed Frances Tiafoe beat Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-4 in the Japanese great's final professional match. Tiafoe is scheduled to meet Arthur Fils on Friday in the last 16, with eighth seed Valentin Vacherot against Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jacquet against Darderi also on the schedule. The remaining round-of-16 matches, including Alcaraz's, are scheduled for Saturday.

For Munar, the quarter-final is already a statement result in a tournament that lost five of its eight seeds before the last 16. The full draw is on our Tokyo 2026 tournament page.