A very interesting first round match in Tokyo will feature the bizarre rematch between Steve Johnson and Bernard Tomic. These two contrasting personalities put on a memorable show on grandstand at the City Open this summer, with Johnson prevailing in two sets but it was Tomic who stole the show with his outrageous clowning antics. 
Tomic tried to challenge an out call on one of Johnson’s shots at his own baseline – probably a first in ATP history – and later on cracked jokes with the chair umpire about how many deuces in his own service game, asking if it was some kind of ATP record, then when Johnson hit more winners to save game points, Tomic even said he was going to stop playing if Johnson hit another backhand return winner, which of course he did. While this whole escapade was going on – Tomic was the clown behaving it was like an exhibition match for charity – Johnson was dead serious as if it was a grand slam quarterfinal. Today in Tokyo the 22 year old Aussie will again do battle with the 25 year old American – and your guess is as good as mine about what will happen this time… Another good first round match is Dimitrov vs Paire. Earlier today Nishikori bounced back from his crushing loss to Paire at the US Open with a three set win vs Borna Coric. Kei is the defending champion of Tokyo, so he has plenty more points to defend. Stan Wawrinka is the top seed.
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Moskova Moskova · October 5, 2015 at 10:59 am
tomic is a flake…..johnson is a bland workhorse.
johnson in straight sets !
Andrew Miller · October 5, 2015 at 12:50 pm
Yeah I like Johnson in this contest. Tomic is an infuriating player for a fan. Can hit winners at will and then disappears. Sound familiar?
Scoop Malinowski · October 5, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Being at this Tomic SJ match in DC was an experience, I never laughed so much at a pro tennis match before, Tomic was clowning like nothing you ever saw, he is a super talented player to watch and major league goofball when in the mood — a fascinating character for sure — I like Johnson but I think Tomic will be fired up this time to try to send a message to SJ — fascinating match —
Dan Markowitz · October 5, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Wow, what happened to Coric today? He won the first set against Nishikori at 2 and then only won 3 more games the rest of the match. He looked like a world beater in the first set, did Kei just outhit him because Coric with his wheels looked like he could everything back.
q10 · October 5, 2015 at 9:07 pm
Dan,
I saw the match kei vs borna. Borna was playing lights out in the 1st set (best I’ve seen of him in my limited viewing) and kei had quite a few uf errors, never on serve comfortably. Then Kei just seemed to warm up and play more aggressive with his shots from the 2nd set. So yeah, I think kei outhit him in the end
Dan Markowitz · October 6, 2015 at 12:50 am
Thanks q10, I don’t know if you take this as a positive for Coric that he was able to win a set handily off of Kei or as a negative that after winning the first set he got his doors blown off in the next two. I watched only briefly, but yes I too had the same feeling that in my viewing of Coric, this was the best I’d seen him play. He wasn’t hitting winners against Kei, but he was so fast and able to counter Kei’s knockout shots well.
Dan Markowitz · October 6, 2015 at 1:02 am
Geez, happened to catch on the ATP site the final set breaker in Sacramento between Daniel Brands, the German, who I haven’t seen on tour in a long time, and my new main man, Brydan Klein. I like Klein because I struck up a conversation with him at the Open after he lost in the last round of Qualis to Ebden and because I’ve never seen a player today get so angry and crazed on the court as Klein.
He did it again today. He lost the first set at 4 but then in the breaker he held tough and had a forehand passing shot to go up a set point on his serve, but struck it into the net. Then on match point, he had a relatively easy forehand volley to stay in or win the point, but he duffed it into the net. All during the breaker, he was hitting balls around in between points and once slammed a ball into the net and when he lost he whipped his racquet as if he was going to throw it kamikaze style into the sidelines.
Klein’s having a rough go of it. In three Challengers, he’s only once reached the quarters and in the last two he’s won only one match.
Harold · October 6, 2015 at 9:01 am
They are who they are. Challenger level players.
Saw Brands play Popsicle in the last round of qualies at the US Open a few years ago. Thought Brands had more upside than Popsicle. Wrong. Brands seems to be battling himself and injuries and cant get into main draws.
Scoop Malinowski · October 6, 2015 at 9:53 am
Tommy Paul qualifies into Sacramento, Tiafoe in as ALT, Fritz in, Opelka out in qualies — Djokovic and Rafa win in singles, Djokobrothers on now in doubles, Djok is 0-5 with ATP doubles matches with his brothers I think this is the first with Djordje —
Andrew Miller · October 6, 2015 at 8:42 pm
Can dy stop Cilic? Japan.
Beyond the interesting Japan and China results, as well as Ivanovic downing Venus, there is Sacramento.
The u.s. Junior slam Contingent is kicking Canada’s former junior slam champ brigade’s tail.
q10 · October 6, 2015 at 10:33 pm
Dan, yep of the limited games I’ve seen coric play, he used to stand far from the baseline and hit short balls duringrally points, but didn’t do that as much, so an improvement I guess, can only get better at 18 I would presume
btw I wonder why tomic retired against Steve? He seems to be playing doubles today with Dolgo
Dan Markowitz · October 7, 2015 at 7:00 am
MaybeTomic with his lack of mobility is opting to become a doubles specialist at 22.
Scoop Malinowski · October 7, 2015 at 8:36 am
Tomic has been known to tank matches, Johnson may have his number —
Andrew Miller · October 7, 2015 at 10:28 am
Japan: cilic d. Dy in solid 3 setter. Dy showing he wants to go the distance every tournament. Gets stevejo next . Nishikori d. Querrey in straights.
We skip China. Ok, China. Sock is in final eight. Another nice result. NADAL IS in a hard fight versus Pops of Canadian fame.
And in Sacramento…Ill leave Sacramento alone. The future can wait.
Dan Markowitz · October 7, 2015 at 10:32 am
What’s with the people wearing face masks in Bejing? Is the air quality so bad?
Scoop Malinowski · October 7, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Sac Chalenger: Paul, Fritz win, Smee survives Tiafoe 76 in third, Donaldson avenges Krueger –
q10 · October 7, 2015 at 10:52 pm
Dan, I’m only guessing the facemask in Beijing is a combination of 2 things- pollution and habit. In japan here, people wear it out of habit (to ‘prevent’ spread of bugs or I’ve heard that girls cover their faces because they don’t think they look pretty…)
Michael · October 8, 2015 at 3:35 am
@dan, Yyes, apparently it’s that bad.
And I’m uncertain how the vaunted Chineese economy will conquer us if the worker bees can not breathe,
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/07/tennis/china-open-beijing-smog-klizan/
Dan Markowitz · October 8, 2015 at 8:52 am
Michael,
Thanks, you’re always on top of the story. It’s your photo-journalistic ways. Wow, that is really bad. I wonder why these pros play in Beijing when the conditions are so bad? Maybe, lots of appearance fees, but this is a Masters, no? so there’s no appearance fees, but probably sponsors reward their players.
Are the conditions as bad in Japan? That is sad that girls who don’t think they’re pretty wear face masks.
Andrew Miller · October 8, 2015 at 3:28 pm
Japan: Cilic d. Steve Johnson, straight sets and no drama. 6-3, 6-3. No breaks of serve. Cilic is defeating every U.S. player in Japan.
Kyrgios d. Bautista “easily”
In today’s QF, you gotta pick Krajicek over Wawrinka.
China: Isner d. Milman in an epic match. Maybe Milman’s getting back some of the magic he had in late 2014, early 2015.
Fognini d. Goffin in 3. We have a lot of Fognini and Goffin fans around.
In Belgium, Elias Ymer loses but he’s now up at #134 at age 19. As the Swedes (see Soderling) take a long time to get up the rankings these days, gotta like this kid.
In other China news, Ivanovic advances. Gotta like Ana.
In Sacramento, McKenzie McDonald takes out Smyczek (!)
Michael · October 8, 2015 at 5:13 pm
@dan, “Maybe, lots of appearance fees, but this is a Masters, no? so there’s no appearance fees, but probably sponsors reward their players.”
Dan, you’re starting to write like Rafa speaks, no ? What makes you think Masters events have no appearance fees?
I suspect there would be no “Asian Swing” but for appearance fees or at least no star power like a Nadal. I only half jokingly refer to the entire period between USO and AO and the Exo part of the tour. (And sponsor payments are “promotional fees” the same as direct from the tournament payments. Anything of value from any source that induces you to show up other than the tournaments prize money is a promotional fee.).
Anyway, of course they get appearance fees. You think Nadal is trucking over to Asia for the prize money at a 500 event when he can do an Exo instead or hit the beach like Serena ? Japan Open and China Open are both 500s. Appearance fees (offically “promotional fees”) at ATP 500 amd 250 events are explicitly permitted by ATP Rules:
“1.16 Promotional Fees
B. ATP World Tour 500 and ATP World Tour 250 tournaments have the option to offer fees for promotional services”
This is not exactly Woodward-Bernstein stuff. You just have to flip open the rule book.
However, even without the rules to refer to logic dictates that such a rule would very likely exist. The ATP was not set up for the benefit of tournament owners but for the players. The rules are bending to the necessary reality. No appearance fees means no elite players for the relatively inconsequential (to those elite players) post-USO 500/250s.
Michael · October 8, 2015 at 5:17 pm
PA, Of course, I’m guessing all the elite players get hefty “promotional fees.” For the young and impressionable that might read this board, no, I do not have access to any inside info. I’m making an educated guess.
Dan Markowitz · October 8, 2015 at 9:10 pm
No, I agree, guys like Djoko and Nadal are probably receiving princely fees. That’s why Djoko has bought both his brothers along. Isn’t it a little embarrassing for Djoko? You’re No. 1 in the world and your two brothers are like 1,500!! I mean what is that?! What’d their parents only give Djoko the good part of the meat? Did the younger brothers not get any coaching? I mean the Djoko brothers are making me long for Thomas Blake.
And I disagree with you, Michael, I do kind of like the Paris Open.
Andrew Miller · October 8, 2015 at 9:59 pm
Prediction: krajicek to beat wawarinka.
And in the capitol of California, th fritz d. Dbrown in pretty much the tightest match.
Donaldson d. Sandgren. Haven’t seen Tennys’ name pop up in a while.
Sounds like all writing off Smyczek loss to Mckenzie McDonald. But that’s another top 100 win for Mcdonald. Maybe like Dan said he really is giving hard thought to becoming the next ucla player to go all challenger on us. If he keeps this up he will probably get a battle with former ucla champ Giron to decide, once and for all who is the best ucla player in Sacramento.
Andrew Miller · October 8, 2015 at 10:03 pm
Yeah the Djokovic brothers are as good as I am. Every year if you see the Qatar open it is the same deal, I think djokovic trades playing in the tournament for wildcarding his brother.
I’d lose to Harrison Jr, he is a good player. Don’t think I would win more than two points. But I like my chances against the younger djokers.
Scoop Malinowski · October 8, 2015 at 10:48 pm
Was told by the Serbian journalist that the younger Djokovic brothers were always considered ordinary prospects, nothing special like big brother — Fritz beating Dustin Brown is a huge win for Taylor, Brown is pretty much very beatable on hard courts — unless he’s playing lights out D Brown tennis — Donaldson and McDonald making some moves, as is Austin Krajicek —
Michael · October 8, 2015 at 10:49 pm
The Paris Exo is one of the better ones during the fall Exo season, I agree.
Probably most tickets are given away as corporate give always like at the MSG Exo they have been doing in March for the past few years. I went to that MSG Exo last year to see Fed horse around with Grigor, give him the win and pick up, what would you think, a million dollars do it for the night ?
Federer, I believe, even has a direct financial interest in young Grigor’s career because I think Grigor signed with Fed’s management company ? Which may explain what the moderately ranked and not well known to the general MSG audience Grigor was doing there instead of, say, Murray.
Scoop Malinowski · October 9, 2015 at 8:32 am
Paris indoors is an excellent fun event, love watching it on TV, some memorable matches there, Hewitt vs teen Monfils, Rusedski beating Sampras in final, etc, it’s always better with a race for number one, which unfortunately isn’t happening this year —
Moskova Moskova · October 9, 2015 at 11:52 am
some nice matches from paris….safin on a tear one year and nalbandian on a ramapage on another
Andrew Miller · October 9, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Moment of truth: McKenzie vs Donaldson. Can ucla’s third pro prospect in four years turn the tables on Dent’s project, and thereby blow up the usta’s investment in junior players at the expense of more seasoned college pros? It all comes down to today’s match. One of the highest rated prospects versus a college kid who with every match is making the ustas program feel somewhat worthless.
In more relevant news, Nasal beat Sock in probably the only chance Sock had to beat him. Nasal, Ferrer, Djokovic and Fginini are all in the semifinals in China
Andrew Miller · October 9, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Japan, wawrinka vs Muller and Nishikori takes on Paire, who is having no joke a great tournament. I like Paire to take this match.
Scoop Malinowski · October 9, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Donaldson over mm, also Fritz into the semis, beats Giron — Fritz making a big move, just lost to Kozlov at Kalamazoo —
Scoop Malinowski · October 9, 2015 at 9:22 pm
Paire is my guy, touting him for years, he’s had his downs and ups, but this guy can take down anyone, the weapons are there, great to see him ascending like a rocket to the elite zone of the ATP —
Andrew Miller · October 10, 2015 at 8:41 pm
Japan) Paire d Nishikori. Huge win.
China, Djokovic d Ferrer easy, Nadal finally beats Fognini. Interested in seeing this final.
China, Baczibsky d Ivanovic! Baczinsky has had an excellent year.
Muguruza, who also had a huge year, d. Radwanska. Maybe Muguruza is joining the wta elite.
Finally, the state of California. Fritz downs Reid and faces Donaldson, who beat up on Kudla in three sets. Amazing to see Kudla get beat as top seed at his best ranking two weeks in a row – Las week by Smee, this week by the Donaldson. Interesting final here – two players that might break through the top 100 in a year.
Scoop Malinowski · October 10, 2015 at 8:50 pm
Djokovic could steamroll Rafa, he beat him in the Thailand exo last week 6462 — another ko loss to Djokovic will erase the confidence built from making the final, Rafa needs a big win over a top player – that’s the best way to jack up his confidence — Baczinsky is back after a quiet stretch — Garbi is going to win a major within two years is my pick —