I went to the Japan Open Tennis to see Alcaraz 🎾

Haisai (^^)/
My no+e thank you for visiting m(_ _)m

On Monday, September 29th, I took a paid leave to go watch the wheelchair tennis men's singles final and the ATP 500 men's singles final at the Japan Open Tennis Championships 🏆️ being held at the Ariake Coliseum.

・What is the Japan Open Tennis Championships?

An international tennis tournament held in Japan. It is an ATP Tour 500 event held at the Ariake Coliseum and Ariake Tennis Forest Park in Tokyo.

・Article on Tokito Oda's final match

・Photography equipment used this time

・Camera & Lens

① ZD ED 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 SWD for OM-1
② M.ZD ED 12-200mm F3.5-6.3 (spare) ③
ZD 2x Teleconverter EC-20

(The images were processed by removing noise from the RAW data with DxO Pure RAW3, thenSILKYPIX Developer Studio Pro12 was used to edit brightness and color, adjust horizontal and vertical alignment, and perform some cropping. Therefore, these are not JPEGs straight from the manufacturer (≧◇≦))

1. Watching tennis live for the first time in a while

I was in the tennis club when I was in high school, and I remember going to watch the Japan Open back then, so it must have been about 30 years ago.

I remember that Japanese players like Shuzo Matsuoka and Kimiko Date were active back then, and overseas players like Sampras and Michael Chang, and Steffi Graf for the women, were also active. (At that time, the Wilson ProStaff racket that Sampras used was popular, and I also used the Courier model of the ProStaff.)

This time, everything aligned and my long-held wish to go watch a match came true.

2. Why I wanted to go watch a tennis tournament

I spent every day playing tennis in the tennis club when I was in high school, but after graduating, I didn't have many opportunities to play, and time passed until last year.

I would watch the four major tournaments on TV from time to time, but when I happened to be watching Wimbledon, one of the four major tournaments last year, there was a player with such a cool playing style, and that player ended up winning. That player was Carlos Alcaraz.

After that, I watched other matches, and Alcaraz's playing style is exciting yet elegant, making me very excited to see what he would do next, so I became captivated.

3. Getting tickets for the semi-finals

Knowing that Alcaraz would be participating in this Japan Open, I wanted to go watch, but when I checked the ticket site, the weekend tickets were already sold out, and only the semi-final and final tickets were left.

The reason I was hesitant to buy them was that the semi-final was on a Monday, so I had to take a paid leave to go, and I was struggling with whether there was any point in going if, by some mistake, Alcaraz didn't make it to the semi-finals. (Actually, since Alcaraz had injured his left ankle in the first round, there was a possibility he would withdraw from subsequent matches, so I was nervously checking the live scores every day, waiting for Alcaraz to play, and praying that he would finish the day's match safely and win.)

However, when I hesitated to buy, even though it was a weekday, tickets for both the semifinals and finals were selling out quickly, starting with the more expensive seats.

Thinking that Alcaraz might never come to Japan again (though he says he will come back...), I realized this might be my only chance to see him in Japan, and I knew I would regret it if I didn't go. So, I requested a paid leave and managed to get a ticket for the semifinals, even though only S-seats were left.

4. Surprisingly, the first match was Tokito Oda player

I also wrote an article about Oda's first match, so please check that out as well.

5. Alcaraz suddenly appeared on the practice court

Even though it was the end of September, it was incredibly hot this day. The inside of the Colosseum was also extremely hot and humid, and by the time I finished watching Oda's first match, I was already exhausted just from watching.
While walking through the Colosseum hallway in a daze, a cart heading toward the show court (outdoor court) suddenly passed right in front of me.
As I wondered who it was with a foggy head, it turned out to be Alcaraz. I woke up in an instant due to the surprise and hurriedly tried to chase after him.

It seemed he was going to practice on the show court, and the area was already overflowing with people.
Since I couldn't see him in person due to the crowd, I stretched out my arms, held my camera up high, and managed to take some photos.

6. Alcaraz's match begins! Kasumi Ishikawa is there beforehand (^^♪

The long-awaited 4th match.
The Colosseum was almost full.
I thought Alcaraz would appear, but Kasumi Ishikawa came out first to perform the coin toss.
(Actually, I've been a huge fan of Kasumi Ishikawa for a long time (〃▽〃)ﾎﾟｯ, so I was super happy to see her in person (^^♪)

7. Alcaraz's match begins!

In the semifinals, Alcaraz's opponent was Casper Ruud.

The match was a back-and-forth battle.
In the first set, Ruud frequently hit great shots and succeeded in breaking in the 8th game, taking the set with one break up.
From the second set, Alcaraz's concentration increased, and he shifted gears, unleashing powerful shots one after another.
The second set started with Alcaraz serving; he held his first game, then succeeded in breaking in the second game. After that, both players held their serves, and Alcaraz took the set with one break up.
Alcaraz's power shots and serves were so insane that I was moved, truly feeling why he is the world number one.
In the third set, both players held until the 4th game, and the game finally shifted in the 5th game.
Here, Alcaraz succeeded in a break all at once.
The match continued with both holding serve until the game set.
With Alcaraz's victory, he advanced to the finals in his first Japan Open appearance.

There were many games that went to 40-40, and there were so many nail-biting moments that I felt again after the match that I was really glad I decided to watch it in person.
And I realized once again that the real thrill of sports is something you can only experience by watching them live.

That's all, thank you for reading until the end <m(__)m>

I look forward to seeing you in the next article (^^)/