is a Japanese 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. She was born on February 6, 1971, in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

and resides in

Fukuyama, Hiroshima is a city in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 459,160 in 214259 households and a population density of 890 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . After Hiroshima, it is the largest city in Hiros ...

. She started playing tennis at age seven with her father and coach Hiroshi and played on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

from 1991 until 1998. She graduated from the

University of Tsukuba is a List of national universities in Japan, national research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. The university has 28 college clusters and schools with around 16,500 students (as of 2014). The main Tsukuba ca ...

while on the tour in March 1993.

Career highlights

* Her career-high ranking was 26th worldwide in singles (1994), and 98th in doubles (1995) * She played 22 Grand Slam tournaments in singles with her best result being the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

at the 1994 US Open. That tournament marked the first time two Japanese women reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam ( Kimiko Date was the other player). * Her career record is 144–108. She won a singles title in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

in 1994, defeating

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...

during that tournament. * Her biggest upset over a seeded player came at the 1996

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

when she defeated the fifth seed Kimiko Date in the second round.

WTA career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ITF finals

Singles (4–0)

Doubles (0–3)

External links

* * * Living people 1971 births University of Tsukuba alumni Japanese female tennis players Olympic tennis players for Japan People from Fukuyama, Hiroshima Sportspeople from Hiroshima Sportspeople from Hiroshima Prefecture Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in tennis Tennis players at the 1994 Asian Games Summer World University Games medalists in tennis Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan FISU World University Games gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1991 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1993 Summer Universiade 20th-century Japanese sportswomen 21st-century Japanese women {{Japan-tennis-bio-stub