Carlos Alcaraz needed two tournaments after a long injury layoff to feel like a champion again. On Tuesday in Tokyo, he got there.
The world No. 3 defeated Jiri Lehecka 7-6(4), 6-4 at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open to defend the title he won in 2025. It was his first tour-level trophy since Doha in February, his third of the season after the Australian Open and Qatar Open, and the 27th of his career.
The win carried extra weight. Alcaraz missed roughly four and a half months with a right wrist injury, returned at the US Open in late August, and arrived in Tokyo still searching for his best tennis. He admitted afterward that he had not been sure he would lift another trophy this year.
“I’m really happy to be able to lift a trophy again,” Alcaraz said. “It’s been a while and obviously it’s extra special after my injury.” He also said he “didn’t know if I was going to win a tournament this season,” which made the Tokyo title feel like more than another ATP 500.
The final was not a procession. Lehecka, ranked No. 19 and on a six-match winning streak, broke Alcaraz in the opening game and later led 4-2 in the first-set tiebreak. Alcaraz answered with five straight points, mixing a difficult recovery, a big forehand, and a drop-shot winner to take the set. He broke again in the seventh game of the second set for 4-3 and closed it out, forcing an error on match point.
Behind his first serve, he was dominant, winning 85 percent of those points. The match lasted 96 minutes. Alcaraz now leads Lehecka 4-1 in their head-to-head and is 10-0 in Tokyo.
The defense also put him in rare company. He is only the third man to retain the Japan Open title, after Stefan Edberg’s three-year run from 1989 to 1991 and Pete Sampras in 1993 and 1994. He is the first to do it since Sampras.
The result moves him past Ben Shelton into third in the Race to Turin. He has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals and heads next to the Shanghai Masters, still wearing a compression sleeve on the right arm that kept him off court for most of the spring and summer.
For a player who completed the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open and then vanished for months, Tokyo was the clearest sign yet that the comeback is no longer theoretical. The roar after match point said as much.
