THE second day of Tokyo 2020 men’s tennis action saw plenty of intrigue as a trio of top 10 seeds fell at the first hurdle in the game of games.

Possibly the biggest upset of the day came from Australian Max Purcell, who was a late entry following Andy Murray‘s late withdrawal and Alex De Minaur‘s positive COVID-19 test. While the world number 190 did not have a heap of preparation, he made the most of his Olympics debut, storming away with a 6-4 7-6(2) victory over ninth seed Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in just under two hours. With more forced (23-17) and unforced errors (12-5), Auger-Aliassime just could not contend with the fired up Australian.

“I went on court just before 3pm and I found out [I was playing] just before 11am, so I had about four hours’ [notice],” Purcell said. “But the whole time I’ve been here I’ve been itching to play singles, so I’m always ready.”

Japanese hometown hero Kei Nishikori caused a stir with an upset of Russian Andrey Rublev – competing for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) – earning his highest ranked victory since 2018. The Japanese bronze medallist in Rio has suffered a string of injuries and resulting shaky form, but showed no signs of that in his 6-3 6-4 sweep of the fifth seed, hitting just 10 unforced errors throughout.

“It’s been a while [since] I’ve been playing like this,” Nishikori said. “I was struggling playing Top-10 players the last couple of months, or maybe all this year. This is the first time I’m playing a very solid match, so I’m happy of course beating Rublev, but also happy with my tennis today.”

“It’s good to be playing at home, especially this site,” he said. “I’ve been playing here a lot – sometimes it feels like home, though with no spectators it’s tough. But I have to enjoy playing here – I know many people are watching on TV, so I just have to focus on what I have to do on the court.”

Tenth seed Gael Monfils was another to fall in the opening round, after famously delaying his – and now wife Elina Monfils – honeymoon to compete in Tokyo. The Frenchman put up a fight but was unable to steal away momentum despite snatching the second set off Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, eventually going down 6-4 4-6 7-5. Elsewhere, a couple of other seeds were put through their paces as third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 3-6 6-3 to earn Greece its first Olympic singles winner since Augustos Zerlandis in Paris in 1924, while another Japanese talent in Yoshihito Nishioka stole away the opening set from 12th seed Karen Khachanov, before eventually going down 3-6 6-1 6-2.

“Stats are important,” Tsitsipas said. “It’s a good thing to know that this happened. I’m a person that’s optimistic and I’m a person that wants more. It is an honour. It’s a big move for Greece. “It’s a big move for this sport in Greece as well and there’s joy in doing that.”

Of the remaining winners, seeds Alexander Zverev, Hubert Hurkacz and Diego Schwartzman led the winners list, as a couple of Americans in Frances Tiafoe and Marcos Giron joined the crew, and another Australian in James Duckworth earned a second round berth. Schwartzman’s compatriots in Federico Coria, Facundo Bagnis and Francisco Cerundolo were all unlucky in the opening round, going down to Mikhail Kukushkin, Dominik Koepfer and Liam Broady, respectively, as Czech Tomas Machac and Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan rounded out the day two winners list.

OLYMPICS ROUND OF 64 RESULTS:

[3] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-3 3-6 6-3
[4] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) 6-1 6-3
Kei Nishikori (JPN) defeated [5] Andrey Rublev (ROC) 6-3 6-4
[7] Hubert Hurkacz (POL) defeated Luke Saville (AUS) 6-2 6-4
[8] Diego Schwartzman (ARG) defeated Juan Pablo Varillas (PER) 7-5 6-4
Max Purcell (AUS) defeated [9] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 6-4 7-6
Ilya Ivashka (BLR) defeated [10] Gael Monfils (FRA) 6-4 4-6 7-5
[12] Karen Khachanov (ROC) defeated Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) 3-6 6-1 6-2
Frances Tiafoe (USA) defeated Soonwoo Kwon (KOR) 6-3 6-2
Marcos Giron (USA) defeated Norbert Gombos (SVK) 7-6 3-6 6-2
Tomas Machac (CZE) defeated Joao Sousa (POR) 6-7 6-4 6-4
Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) defeated Federico Coria (ARG) 7-6 7-5
Dominik Koepfer (GER) defeated Facundo Bagnis (ARG) 3-6 6-3 7-5
Liam Broady (GBR) defeated Francisco Cerundolo (ARG) 7-5 6-7 6-2
James Duckworth (AUS) defeated Lukas Klein (SVK) 5-7 6-3 7-6
Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) defeated Mohamed Safwat (EGY) 7-5 6-1

Picture credit: ITF