Kokkinakis & Kyrgios Lead Tokyo Doubles Draw
Two Grand Slam-winning teams headline the doubles draw at the 2022 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.
Australian Open champions Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios lead the way as the top seeds, followed by Wimbledon winners Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. The Australian teams met in January in the Australian Open final, and will need three more wins each to book a rematch in the Tokyo final.
The Tokyo event is the seventh this season for Kokkinakis and Kyrgios as a team. The ‘Special Ks’ will open against Japanese wild cards Yoshihito Nishioka and Kaichi Uchida in the draw’s top half as they seek their third title of 2022.
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Alex de Minuar and Frances Tiafoe are also in the top half and loom as potential semi-final opponents for Kokkinakis and Kyrgios. Teaming for just the second time, the duo will face Mackenzie McDonald and Marcelo Melo in the first round.
Fourth seeds Daniel Evans and John Peers round out the top half, with the British-Australian pairing meeting Sweden’s Andre Goransson and Japan’s Ben McLachlan in Monday's lone doubles match.
In the draw’s bottom half, second seeds Ebden and Purcell face Alexei Popyrin and Ramkumar Ramanathan, while third seeds Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez play Hans Hach Verdugo and Miomir Kecmanovic.
The Japanese wild card duo of Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi will open against qualifiers Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium.