Japan Open: Third seed Fritz, back from Covid, battles past Duckworth in first round

American Taylor Fritz, the No 3 seed, moved into the second round of the Japan Open by beating Australian James Duckworth 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-1 at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Fritz, ranked No 11, will face lucky loser Hiroki Moriya next.

Fritz had to sit out the event in Seoul last week after testing positive for Covid-19 but showed no signs of fatigue as he battled into round two.

Tokyo ATP 500, other first-round results (Ariake Colosseum, hard, USD 1.953.285, most recent results first):

• Denis Shapovalov (7) beat Steve Johnson: 6-3, 7-6 (3)
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Yoshihito Nishioka: 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2
• Hiroki Moriya beat Yuta Shimizu (Q): 6-1, 6-3
• Kamil Majchrzak beat Sho Shimabukuro (Q): 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Nick Kyrgios (5) beat Chun-Hsin Tseng: 6-3, 6-1
• Rio Noguchi (Q) beat Ramkumar Ramanathan (Q): 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1)
• Jaume Munar beat Casper Ruud (1): 6-3, 6-3
• Daniel Evans (8) beat Radu Albot: 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4
• Borna Coric (9) beat Thanasi Kokkinakis: 6-4, 7-6 (4)
• SoonWoo Kwon beat Alex De Minaur (6): 6-3, 6-2
• Mackenzie McDonald beat Kaichi Uchida (WC): 7-6 (4), 6-7 (2), 6-3
• Frances Tiafoe (4) beat Yasutaka Uchiyama (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Bernabe Zapata Miralles beat Taro Daniel: 7-5, 7-5
• Brandon Nakashima beat Shintaro Mochizuki (WC): 6-3, 6-2
• Pedro Martinez beat Alexei Popyrin: 7-5, 6-4