◇Five players from among the top ten ranking players in the world will be playing, including Sloane Stephens (25, USA, ranked 3rd), Angelique Kerber (30, Germany, ranked 4th), and Caroline Garcia (24, France, ranked 5th).
◇Naomi Osaka (20, Japan), runner-up in the tournament the year before last, makes her first appearance as a main draw player.
◇From Japan, Kurumi Nara (26, Japan) will be competing as a wild card.
The 35th Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis Tournament (executive committee headquartered in Tokyo’s Minato ward and led by tournament director Yutaka Nakagawa), the largest international women’s tennis tournament in Japan, will be held at the Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and Dome Tachikawa Tachihi in Tachikawa, Tokyo, from Saturday, September 15 to Sunday, September 23, 2018. This year’s tournament will feature 18 main draw players and one wild card player.
Positioned at the pinnacle of professional women's tennis in Japan, the TPPO celebrates its 35th iteration this year. The venue for this year’s tournament has been changed to Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and Dome Tachikawa Tachihi, and the competition will bring together some of the top players in the world to battle it out.
This year’s tournament will feature a veritable who's who of the top-ranking women’s tennis players in the world, including Sloane Stephens (USA, ranked 3rd), who was runner-up at the French Open Tennis ; Angelique Kerber (Germany, ranked 4th), who won Wimbledon; Garbine Muguruza (Spain, ranked 9th), who has appeared in the TPPO many times; and Caroline Garcia (France, ranked 5th), each of whom has her own following in Japan as well. Naomi Osaka (Japan, ranked 19th), who continues to be a tennis powerhouse, will compete as a main draw this year. Also representing Japan, Kurumi Nara (ranked 99th) has been selected to compete as a wild card entrant this year. (World rankings as of August 13, 2018)
This year’s tournament will be held in an indoor arena, meaning fans will be closer to the action than ever before as sparks fly between world-class players. Watch for more about the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis 2018, a hot topic among tennis fans in Japan and the world over.
