US Open 2018: Ageless Kimiko Date to latest wunderkid Naomi Osaka, key players behind Japan's quiet rise in tennis

In a never before seen occurrence, the US Open of 2018 sees two Japanese players — one each in the men’s and women’s draw, in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. Kei Nishikori trumped Marin Cilic in the quarter-final with a solid five-set battle. On the WTA side, young talent Naomi Osaka waged her own battle, taking a one-sided 6-1, 6-1 win over the experienced Lesia Tsurenko. The two had become the first Japanese pair to reach the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows in 23 years, since the former World No 4 Kimiko Date and one-time top 50 men’s singles player Shuzo Matsuoka reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 1995. While neither progressed beyond that stage at the time, Matsuoka did take a set off the eventual champion, Pete Sampras, in the quarter-finals, which should count for something. Matsuoka, who watched Nishikori’s win over Cilic this week, even coached the younger Japanese player for a while in his early juniors career. [caption id=“attachment_5134681” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Naomi Osaka celebrates a point against Madison Keys during their US Open 2018 semi-final. AFP[/caption] History has seen a number of Japanese tennis players, although none has ever won a Grand Slam . But then again, that is only in the singles. Rika Hiraki in particular may be a name familiar to Indian tennis watchers; she partnered Mahesh Bhupathi to victory at the 1997 French Open. More recent names tennis watchers might be more familiar with include Yuichi Sugita, Go Soeda, Nao Hibino and Misaki Doi. But tennis goes back a very long way in the country, and in fact, Japan has one of the oldest tennis associations in Asia — the JTA was founded in 1922, and evidence of courts being built for public use in Japan date as far back as 1878. The country has frequent performers at the Davis Cup, and Japanese players have done well in doubles tennis. In 1975, doubles ace Kazuko Sawamatsu, who had already made the singles semi-finals at the Australian Open that year, won the Wimbledon doubles title with her partner Ann Kiyomura — the pair became the first Asians to win any Grand Slam title. It would be 36 years before China’s Li Na would become the first Asian to win a singles title, with her 2011 French Open victory over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, who announced her retirement earlier this week. For a country that until recently was not exactly in the public sensibility in terms of their tennis prowess for the modern generation, Japan has produced champions with startling consistency, especially in the doubles. Ai Sugiyama was ranked No 1 in the women’s doubles, and won three Grand Slam doubles titles over her career — one each at Wimbledon, French Open and US Open; at the most recent of those at the All-England Championships in 2003, she partnered former singles No 1 Kim Clijsters to the title. Japan found tennis the way many countries in Asia did early on: with colonisers. When missionaries and colonisers moved to Japan in the 19th century, they constructed tennis courts. At the time, tennis was still more of an elite sport, and was more accessible to the well-off. It slowly picked pace after becoming a Japanese family activity for some, and since then, Japan has produced tennis players with frequency that might be surprising to some, considering that apart from Nishikori, Kimiko Date and Naomi Osaka, no names immediately spring to the public consciousness. And Kimiko Date was perhaps the most successful of them all, retiring in her heyday only to come back to consistent, successful results — something that has evaded many. Let’s take a look at key players who have contributed to Japan’s steady rise in tennis. Kimiko Date Naomi Osaka has long said Serena Williams — whom she will now face in the women’s singles final this weekend, has been her biggest inspiration to play, and indeed Williams’ successful beginnings in 1999 would be right around when Osaka was born. But Osaka has idols from both her home countries — Japan and the USA, and at 20 years old, she has already charted her own path. Enter Japan’s most successful tennis player to date — Kimiko Date. Date, who went pro in 1989, only took her second, and final, retirement last September at the age of 46. Ranked at World No 5 in the singles in 1995, Date has played with incredible consistency over the course of her on-off career, which effectively spanned over 16 years. Sharing the stage with Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Date was more than able to hold her own, and between 1994 and 1996 made the finals of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon respectively; in both 1994 and 1996, she was defeated by Graf, who was the eventual champion on both occasions. In the latter half of her career, Date made the semi-finals of the US Open as recently as 2014 partnering Barbora Strycova, and the pair troubled fourth seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina before their eventual loss. In 2015, she reached World No 28 in the doubles, which was her career’s highest ranking in that discipline. 2015 also saw her take on a curiously talented teenager to qualify for the main draw at Stanford: a 17-year-old named Naomi Osaka, who is now in the finals of the US Open with a straight sets win over Madison Keys. Date would eventually take her second, permanent retirement following the 2017 Japan Open — 25 years after first winning a title there. In a sport where many players are lucky to have one successful career, Kimiko Date had two, both characterised by singular consistency, fitness and finesse. She remains the most successful player the country has ever produced — twice over! The ‘Kei’ to success Nishikori has unequivocally been the most successful male player Japan has ever produced. The only Japanese man to make the top 5 in the singles rankings, Kei Nishikori is no stranger to Grand Slam finals — or to the US Open. His 2018 quarter-final win may have been quite the avenging match for the Japanese ace, who lost in the finals in 2014 to the same opponent — Marin Cilic. [caption id=“attachment_5134711” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Kei Nishikori beat Marin Cilic in US Open 2018 quarter-finals. AFP[/caption] Nishikori showed promise early, and won the French Open boys’ doubles in 2006; he was a top 10 player during his juniors career, before injuries began his battle with inconsistency. The first serious injury for Nishikori came in 2009, after struggling through the latter half of 2008 with a troublesome knee. His elbow then became an issue in 2009, but it has been his knee that his been perhaps his most consistent plague on what has still been a fairly well-decorated career. Fun fact: In 2012, Nishikori became the first Japanese man to win the Japan Open since its 1971 inception; he is the only Japanese man to win it to date. Since joining forces with former World No 1 Michael Chang, Nishikori has seen a significant upswing in his results. Two years on from his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, Nishikori won bronze at the Olympic Games at Rio 2016, and it is only injuries that have perhaps let him down in what might have been an even more highly-decorated career. For now, Nishikori is up against an athlete who is in nothing short of total beast mode — Novak Djokovic, perhaps the overwhelming favourite in that match. New kid on the block That, of course, brings us to the modern day and a 20-year-old talent named Naomi Osaka. The daughter of a Japanese mother and a Haitian-American father, Osaka was born in Japan but has lived in the USA since she was three. Registered to the Japanese Tennis Association by her father because she received more support, Osaka, at only 16 years old, defeated seasoned veteran and former US Open champion Sam Stosur. Consistent performances over the next year not only saw Osaka voted the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year, but also breach the women’s top-50 singles rankings. Even in 2017, Osaka showed all the beginnings of US Open glory, defeating former World No 1 Angelique Kerber in straight sets in the first round of the tournament. That year, she also defeated one of her idols, Venus Williams, in Round 2 of the Hong Kong Open. 2018 has been even better for an increasingly consistent Osaka, whose game is marked by an immense forehand, aggressive baseline play and patient, drawn-out rallies that see her opponents, more often than not, lured into faltering — something that marked her straight sets win over Madison Keys to make what is now Osaka’s first ever Grand Slam final. This year, after her defeat of Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells in perhaps a portent of what was to come, Osaka told assembled reporters, “There are three people I wanted to play, Venus, Sharapova and Serena. Now I’m just waiting to play Serena.” This Sunday, Osaka’s wait, which lasted only five months, will end as she takes on her all-time idol — one she shares with millions — Serena Jameka Williams.