Tennis: Trio show form in Japanese tournament

Tennis in New Zealand has had some good news ahead of next month's Davis Cup tie against Kuwait.

Three Kiwi players in a US$10,000 ($14,300) Futures tournament in Tokyo have won their first-round matches.

Davis Cup team member Dan King-Turner scored a good win to defeat American sixth-seed Phillip King (ranked 518) 6-3, 6-2. He now plays Japan's Naoki Arimoto who is 941st. Fourth-seed Mark Nielsen downed Japanese qualifier Katsushi Fukuda 6-1, 6-4 and will play Yasuo Miyazaki, also of Japan, in the next round.

Aucklander Rubin Statham, 18, beat Japanese wildcard Akito Higa 6-2, 6-0. Statham will meet Taiwan's Tai-Wei Liu in the second round.