Japan Open: Paul beats Arnaldi to make second round

American Tommy Paul, the No 5 seed, defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Japan Open at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo on Thursday.

This was the first meeting on the ATP tour between the two players. The American reached the quarter-finals here last year, going down to eventual champion Ben Shelton.

Paul, ranked No 13 and looking for a good run during the fall swing to break into the top 10 for the first time, will play the winner of the match between Australian Alexei Popyrin and Tomas Machac next.

Tokyo ATP 500, other first-round matches (Ariake Colosseum, hard, USD 1,818,380):

• Ugo Humbert beat Shintaro Mochizuki (WC): 6-1, 6-2
• Hubert Hurkacz (2) beat Marcos Giron: 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4
• Matteo Berrettini beat Botic van de Zandschulp (Q): 6-3, 6-4
• Mariano Navone beat Luciano Darderi: 6-4, 6-4
• Casper Ruud vs. Jordan Thompson
• Marin Cilic vs. Kei Nishikori
• Alejandro Tabilo vs. Holger Rune
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Christopher O’Connell
• Taylor Fritz vs. Arthur Fils
• Alex Michelsen vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Tomas Machac
• Reilly Opelka vs. Ben Shelton
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Jack Draper vs. Mattia Bellucci

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