Alcaraz Reaches Tokyo Final Again

Carlos Alcaraz beat fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar 5⁠–⁠7, 6⁠–⁠3, 6⁠–⁠1 on Monday, 5 October, in the semi-finals of the Japan Open in Tokyo. The match took about two and a half hours. It puts the top seed and defending champion in the final for the second year in a row (ATP Tour; Reuters via The Straits Times).

The Japan Open, the Kinoshita Group Japan Open this week, is an ATP 500, a men’s tournament one level below the Masters series. A semi-final is the round of four. Alcaraz is the world No. 3. Munar is ranked 64 and came through the qualifying rounds, the preliminary bracket, to reach the main draw. He is also Spanish. Their head-to-head series, the running tally between them, moved to 4⁠–⁠1 in Alcaraz’s favour (ATP Tour; Tennis.com).

The first set was the story that will stick. Alcaraz led 5⁠–⁠3 and looked set to take it. He then lost 16 points in a row and the set, 7⁠–⁠5. “I don’t know what happened in the first set,” he said. “I started the match well. I was up a break and serving for the set. It seems that I’m struggling in every first set… But I've come back every time and I’m really happy about it” (ATP Tour).

He finally stopped the run in the opening game of the second set and answered with an ironic celebration toward the crowd. From there he took control of the longer rallies that Munar had dominated earlier, forced his opponent further behind the baseline, and levelled the match 6⁠–⁠3. In the decider he pulled clear and finished it 6⁠–⁠1 (ATP Tour).

“Jaume is a pretty tough player to play against and these conditions suit him well,” Alcaraz said. “I’m just happy that in the second set, I tried to stay there. I made a couple of breaks that helped a lot to get a bit of confidence, then I started to play more aggressively” (ATP Tour).

The wider frame is a comeback season. Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam by winning the Australian Open in February, then missed about four and a half months with a right wrist injury. He returned at the US Open, reached the quarter-finals, and later helped Team Europe at the Laver Cup. This is his fourth tour-level final of 2026 and his first since Monte-Carlo in April. It is also a nine-match winning streak at this event after he lifted the trophy on his Tokyo debut last year (ATP Tour; Reuters via The Straits Times).

Munar made him earn it for long stretches. The qualifier used defence to frustrate the top seed and then flipped exchanges with his own aggression. Alcaraz had already been pushed to a first-set tie-break in each of his first three matches in Japan this week. Against Munar he needed another gear after watching the opening set disappear from 5⁠–⁠3. He found it (ATP Tour).

He has now won his past 16 matches against fellow Spaniards. His last defeat to a countryman was against Rafael Nadal in the Indian Wells semi-finals in 2022 (ATP Tour).

What is still open is the other semi-final and Tuesday’s final. Alcaraz plays the winner of Jiří Lehečka of the Czech Republic and Valentin Vacherot of Monaco. That second semi-final had not been completed at press time. No winner is named here. The final is scheduled for Tuesday, 6 October (Reuters via The Straits Times; ATP Tour).

What a reader can take from Monday in Tokyo is the recovery, not a finished final. Alcaraz lost 16 points in a row and the first set to a qualifier ranked 64th. He took the next two sets. He is back in the Japan Open final. His opponent is whoever comes through between Lehečka and Vacherot. That is a set-up, not a result.