Hewitt, Nalbandian On Tap in Tokyo

An ugly slew of nobodies and over-the-hill veterans led the cast at the ATP stop in Tokyo Tuesday, but highlighted for the Asian fans were Japanese wildcard Gouichi Motomura (d. Glenn "I.C." Weiner) and Taipei qualifier Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (d. Jeff "The Lizard King" Morrison).

"I was very nervous and anxious before the match for a few reasons," Motomura said. "I haven't played an ATP event for some time."

Also into the second round were un-seeds Nicholas "How Did I Get Directly Into the Draw?" Thomann of France (d. (Q) Pless in two tiebreaks), American Justin "Time" Gimelstob (d Christophe "The Roach" Rochus), and Aussie Wayne "Someone Retire Me" Arthurs (d. Lisnard).
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Rain washed out the remainder of the schedule on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the seeds finally emerge among the backed-up schedule including (WC) Suzuki vs. (15) Hernych, (1) Hewitt vs. (WC) Motomura, (Q) Wang vs. (2) Nalbandian, (Q) Phau vs. (WC) Iwami, (7) Dent vs. Zib, Gimelstob vs. (8) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson, (Q) Iwabuchi vs. (WC) Terachi in an all-Japanese, Arthurs vs. (10) H.-T. Lee, Ulihrach vs. Okun, (16) Muller vs. Bogomolov Jr., Garcia-Lopez vs. Burgsmuller, Vacek vs. Saretta, (9) Saulnier vs. Thomann in an all-French, Carlsen vs. (Q) Kohlmann, and Peya vs. (Q) Chiudinelli.