is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from Japan.

Biography

Kuki, a right-hander, played collegiate tennis in the United States for

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. He had an unbeaten season in 1969, with a 13–0 record. He was first picked for the

Japan Davis Cup team The Japan men's national tennis team represents Japan in Davis Cup tennis competition and is governed by the Japan Tennis Association. Japan first competed at the Davis Cup in 1921, where they finished as runners-up. They were an inaugural membe ...

in the 1971 tournament. His best performance in a

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

tournament came at the

1971 French Open The 1971 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 24 May until 6 June. It was the 70th staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Sla ...

when he had wins over

Phil Dent Philip Clive Dent (born 14 February 1950) is a former professional tennis player. Dent's high water mark as a pro singles player was reaching the Australian Open final in 1974, which he lost to Jimmy Connors in four sets. Dent was also the men ...

and

Petre Mărmureanu Petre Mărmureanu (born 20 June 1941) is a Romanian-American former professional tennis player. Mărmureanu played for the Romania Davis Cup team in 1962 and 1963, then from 1969 to 1972. His second stint in the team included three runner-up fini ...

, before losing a five-set third round match to Bob Lutz. In April 1976 he had the most prolific period of his career when he finished runner-up in a further two Grand Prix tournaments, both in Spain. He lost to

Paolo Bertolucci Paolo Bertolucci (; born 3 August 1951) is an Italian former professional tennis player. He is currently working as a sport commentator for Italian SKY Italia, Sky TV. Bertolucci won the Davis Cup with Italy in 1976. His greatest success on ATP ...

in the final at

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, then to

Buster Mottram Christopher "Buster" Mottram (born 25 April 1955 in Kingston upon Thames) is an English former tennis player and UK number 1, who achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15 on 17 July 1978 and again on 7 February 1983. Early life M ...

Palma, Majorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of M ...

. A regular

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

competitor for Japan in the 1970s, Kuki played the last of his nine ties for the Japanese team in 1978. He played a total of 17 singles matches, of which he won 11. In the 1980s he was coach of

Etsuko Inoue is a retired tennis player from Japan. Inoue twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics: in 1984 (Los Angeles, California) and 1988 (Seoul, South Korea). In 1982, she became the first winner of the women's tennis competition a ...

, a player on the women's circuit.

Grand Prix career finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuki, Jun 1945 births Living people Japanese male tennis players UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Sportspeople from Yokkaichi 20th-century Japanese sportsmen

Biography

Grand Prix career finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

See also

References

External links