Li, Oda and Vink seal Super Series titles at 41st Japan Open
Tokito Oda, Li Xiaohui and Niels Vink emerged victorious at the 41st Japan Open as Oda became the latest Japanese player to complete a hat-trick of Super Series singles titles in Iizuka, Li became the first Chinese player to lift a Japan Open main draw singles title and Vink completed the tournament as the only one of the 2025 singles champions to also add a doubles title.
Li doubles tally of Super Series titles as she beats world No.1 Kamiji again
Li started 2025 by making history as the first Chinese player to win a Super Series singles title after she outplayed Yui Kamiji to win the final of the Melbourne Open in straights set.
However, this time the 25-year-old world No. 5 had to come from a set down as defending champion and world No.1 Kamiji made a good start in her quest to wrap up an eighth Japan Open women’s singles title.
Kamiji has had a challenging time against Chinese players during April’s swing of Asia’s biggest annual tournaments on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and lost out to world No. 4 Wang Ziying in the final of the ITF Daegu Open. But on paper that was a much closer contest than her final against Li in the premier tournament staged in Asia as fourth seed Li earned a 3-6 6-3 6-1 victory, having also beaten world No. 2 Aniek van Koot 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the semi-finals.
Li’s success in the women’s singles made up for losing her doubles winning streak partnering Wang. The Australian Open champions’ sequence of four tournament and 13 matches unbeaten came to an end in the semi-finals in Iizuka against Lucy Shuker and Van Koot after a deciding match tie-break.
However, another match tie-break in the final went against Shuker and Van Koot as Manami Tanaka and Zhu Zhenzhen clinched their first Super Series title together, the top seeds battling to a 7-6(4) 2-6 (12-10) victory over the second seeds.
Oda earns Japan Open three-peat after De la Puente comeback
Due to bad weather, Sunday’s men’s and women’s singles finals for the Emperor’s Cup and the Empress’s Cup were held on held on indoor courts in Iizuka, but the weather could do little to dampen the enthusiasm of the assembled fans as top seed Tokito Oda completed a hat-trick of Japan Open titles to leave the roll of honour showing Japanese winners of the last four men’s singles draws in Iizuka.
However, for large parts of the second and third sets world No. 3 and second seed Martin de la Puente looked like he might become the first Spaniard to win a Super Series singles crown and that the Japan Open title might become the third high-level tournament in successive weeks in Asia to have a Spanish winner after Daniel Caverzaschi and De la Puente had claimed back-to-back ITF 1 titles at the Daegu Open and the Seoul Korea Open.
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Caverzaschi fell to Oda 6-0 6-4 in the semi-finals in Japan, while having battled past his doubles partner Ruben Spaargaren in three sets in the quarter-finals, De la Puente won eight of 10 games to take a 2-0 third and deciding set lead over Oda in the final. De la Puente was on the verge of taking a 3-0 third set lead when he went 40-0 up in the next game, but Oda fought back in front of an expectant home crowd and recovered from 5-3 down before finally wrapping up a dramatic 7-6(2) 2-6 7-5 victory for his seventh career Super Series title after two hours and 31 minutes.
With Shingo Kunieda having won the 2019 title before the 2020. 2021 and 2022 editions were cancelled due to the effects of the pandemic, Oda still has some way to go before equalling the record nine Japan Open singles titles won by his celebrated elder countryman. But at the age of 18 he has plenty of years ahead of him – Kunieda was 23 before winning the first of his nine tiles in Iizuka.
There was double disappointment for De la Puente over the last two days of the tournament, having also been denied the men’s doubles title in a deciding match tie-break. Looking to make it back-to-back doubles crowns following their Seoul Korea final win over Daniel Caverzaschi and Stephane Houdet, De la Puente and Spaargaren were edged out 6-4 5-7 (10-8) as top seeds Caverzaschi and Houdet claimed their first Super Series title as a partnership and Caverzaschi gained the first Super Series title of his career.
Vink regains Japan Open quad singles title from Schroder
Niels Vink became the first Dutch player to win the Japan Open quad singles title in 2023 and while he or Sam Schroder continue to return to Iizuka it could be quite a few more years yet before a player from outside of Netherlands wrestles the title from its current Dutch grip.
Vink continues to dominate this year’s Super Series tournaments, having now won all three of this year’s Super Series quad draws to date and the world No. 1 took his tally of career Super Series singles titles to 12 following his 4-6 6-3 6-3 victory over world No. 2 Schroder on the penultimate day of this year’s Japan Open.
Vink has beaten three different players in each of his Super Series finals so far in 2025, defeating Guy Sasson in the final of the Melbourne Open and Ahmet Kaplan in the final of the Cajun Classic, and it was Sasson and Kaplan, respectively, who were beaten by Vink and Schroder in the semi-finals in Iizuka.
In fact, Vink’s 2025 season has started off in similar fashion to 2023, when he completed his whole year with just two singles losses, both to Schroder in Grand Slam finals. So far this term, Vink’s only loss has come against Schroder in the final of the Australian Open.
In any previous season Schroder and Vink would have been warm favourites to win the quad doubles title together, too – as they did in 2023. However, having decided to go into 2025 with new doubles partners they both still ended up in the final in Iizuka, with top seeds Sasson and Vink easing to a 6-0 6-1 victory over Schroder and David Wagner.
Australian Open finalists together, Sasson and Vink have now won two titles as a partnership so far this season, including two Super Series titles after their victory at the Melbourne Open in January. Vink remains unbeaten in Super Series competition this year after also partnering Heath Davidson to win the Cajun Classic quad doubles draw.
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