Day Three of the 2023 Kinoshita Group Japan Open will take place on Wednesday, October 18 at the Ariake Tennis Forest Park in Tokyo. Here is our preview of the day at the ATP 500 tournament, with Casper Ruud and Ben Shelton among those set to take to the courts. 

Up first on Ariake Coliseum, Zhizhen Zhang will face Hubert Hurkacz in the final Round of 32 of the event. The Chinese player made history at the Shanghai Masters last week when he became the first home player to reach the fourth round in the tournament's history.

The World No. 57 defeated Richard Gasquet, twenty-eighth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry, and 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Brandon Nakashima during his run in Shanghai, but his success was ended by Hurkacz in the Round of 16. The Polish player then went on to win the tournament, emerging victorious from a tight three-set battle against fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the final to claim the second ATP Masters title of his career.

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Hurkacz leads their head-to-head 2-0 but their recent clash was incredibly close, with two out of three sets going to a tiebreak. Moreover, Zhang will want revenge for his defeat last week, meaning that it could be another nail-biting encounter.

All-American clash ahead of Ruud and Shelton 

Following this, Felix Auger-Aliassime will take on Sebastian Ofner for the first time. The Canadian player has shown incredible talent in the past but has struggled a lot over recent months, suffering a string of early exits. At the Shanghai Masters, he lost his opening match to Márton Fucsovics, and his progression to the second round in Tokyo involved three sets and two tiebreaks against World No. 54 Aleksandar Vukic. 

Next, Tommy Paul will face Mackenzie McDonald in an all-American clash. Fifth seed Paul fought back from a set down against Daniel Altmaier in the first round, while McDonald defeated Max Purcell in straight sets ahead of the meeting with his compatriot. The two players have faced each other twice before, with Paul currently leading their head-to-head 2-0.

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After this, second seed Ruud will play against qualifier Marcos Giron. The Norwegian player has had an up-and-down time on the ATP Tour as of late, making it to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Beijing two weeks ago and the Round of 16 in Shanghai. He moved past home player Yosuke Watanuki in his first round at the Japan Open 6-4, 6-2.

This will be his first meeting with Giron since the 2021 Paris Masters, where he defeated the American in straight sets.

Finally, Shelton will face World No. 60 Jordan Thompson for the first time. The American showed resilience against home player Taro Daniel in the first round, fighting back from a set down to progress 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2). Meanwhile, Thompson pulled off an impressive win against third seed and Top 10 player Alexander Zverev in the opening round, ousting the World No. 10 6-3, 6-4.

Schedule for Day Three Japan Open