Shingo Kunieda and Satoshi Saida carry the flag for the host nation going into Saturday’s singles semi-finals at the Rakuten Japan Open, as a UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour event makes its debut alogside the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo.

The new ITF 2 Series event, contested by a select field of eight men’s players, is taking place at the Ariake Tennis Colosseum, the host venue for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic and Olympic Tennis Events.

World No. 2 Kunieda eased trough to Saturdays’ last four after a 6-2, 6-1 win over Korean Ho-Wo Im. Shunjiang Dong denied the local fans of an all-Japanese semi-final after beating Daisuke Arai 6-4 6-4 and Don now plays Kunieda for just the second time after Kunieda wo their last 16 contest at te Rio 2016 Paralympics 6-1 6-4.

The only European player in the draw, two-time Wimbledon champion and second seed Stefan Olsson, was in no mood to stay on court for too long as Sweden’s world No. 6 swept past Japan’s world No. 99 Tokito Oda 6-1 6-0. Olsson plays former world No. 3 Saida for a place in the final after Saida’s 6-2 6-3 win over Haruya Mizukoshi.

Only one of Olsson and Saida’s seven career matches has come since 2012, when they met in the first round of the Japan Open Super Series and Olsson takes a 5-2 advantage over Saida into Saturday’s semi-final in Tokyo.

Saturday’s second of three days of play will also include the doubles final after top seeds Kunieda and Olsson and Dong and Im won their respective semi-finals 6-0 6-0.