was a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player from Japan.

Early life

Nunoi, who came from an affluent

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

merchant family, was a student at Kobe Higher Commercial School (now called Kobe University).

Career

Nunoi was the youngest member of the Japanese squad that toured Australia in 1932 and played in a series of "Test matches" against the home side. In one of these matches he came close to upsetting

Harry Hopman Henry Christian Hopman CBE (12 August 1906 – 27 December 1985) was an Australian tennis player and coach. Early life Harry Hopman was born on 12 August 1906 in Glebe, Sydney as the third child of John Henry Hopman, a schoolteacher, and Jenni ...

, but failed to convert set points in each of the two sets. He did however have a win over Jack Crawford in

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

. At the

1932 Australian Championships The 1932 Australian Championships was a tennis tournament that took place on outdoor Grass courts at the Memorial Drive, Adelaide, Australia from 6 February to 13 February. It was the 25th edition of the Australian Championships (now known as the ...

, Nunoi was a quarter-finalist in the singles, along with teammate

Jiro Sato was a Japanese tennis player. He was ranked World No. 3 in 1933, but committed suicide in the Strait of Malacca during his trip to the Davis Cup in 1934. He received worldwide fame in Wimbledon 1932, when he beat the defending champion Sidney ...

.Tennis Archive Profile
/ref> Nunoi and Sato remained the only Japanese players to reach the quarter-finals at the Championships (later Australian Open) until they were joined by

Kei Nishikori is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high sing ...

in 2012. In 1933 he spent a lot of time in Europe, where he played in four

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the orga ...

ties, against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and Australia.Davis Cup Profile
/ref> He won singles matches over Emil Gábori,

Béla von Kehrling Béla von Kehrling ( hu, Kehrling Béla ; 25 January 1891 – 26 April 1937) was a Hungarian tennis, table tennis, and football player but eventually a winter sportsman familiar with ice-hockey and occasionally competing in bobsleigh. He compet ...

George Lyttleton-Rogers George Lyttleton Rogers (10 July 1906 – 19 November 1962) was an Irish tennis player, promoter and coach. He won the Irish Championships title three times, (1926, 1936–1937). He was the Canadian and Argentine champion as well. He was a thre ...

, Edward McGuire,

Gustav Jaenecke Gustav "Justav" Jaenecke (22 May 1908 – 30 May 1985) was a German ice hockey player who competed in the 1928 Winter Olympics, in the 1932 Winter Olympics, and in the 1936 Winter Olympics, and tennis player who played in three Internation ...

and

Vivian McGrath Vivian Erzerum Bede McGrath (17 February 1916 – 9 April 1978) was a tennis champion from Australia. Along with John Bromwich, he was one of the early great players to use a two-handed backhand. His name was pronounced "McGraw". Biograph ...

. His two singles losses were both in five sets, to Jack Crawford and

Gottfried Von Cramm Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (; 7 July 1909 – 8 November 1976) was a German tennis champion who won the French Open twice and reached the final of a Grand Slam on five other occasions. He was ranked number 2 in ...

. Nunoi partnered Sato in all four doubles rubbers and they were beaten only once, by the Australian pairing of Jack Crawford and

Adrian Quist Adrian Karl Quist (23 January 191317 November 1991) was an Australian tennis player. Biography Adrian Quist was born in Medindie, South Australia. His father was Karl Quist, who had been a noted interstate cricketer, and owned a sporting goo ...

, in another five set match. While in Europe he appeared at both the 1933 French Championships and

1933 Wimbledon Championships The 1933 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Monday 26 June until Saturday 8 July 1933. It was the 53rd ...

. At the French Championships he was the 12th seed and came from two sets down to defeat Adrian Quist in the second round. He was then eliminated from the tournament by

Marcel Bernard Marcel Bernard (; 18 May 1914 – 29 April 1994) was a French tennis player. He is best remembered for having won the French Championships in 1946 (reaching the semifinals a further three times). Bernard initially intended to play only in the dou ...

. In Wimbledon he lost in the second round to

Lester Stoefen Lester Rollo Stoefen (March 30, 1911 – February 8, 1970) was an American tennis player of the 1930s. Career Stoefen, partnering with compatriot George Lott, won three Grand Slam doubles titles: 1934 Wimbledon Championships, 1933 and 1934 U.S. ...

but made history with Jiro Sato in the doubles, with the pair becoming the first Japanese players to make a Wimbledon final. They lost in the tournament decider to

Jean Borotra Jean Laurent Robert Borotra (, ; 13 August 1898 – 17 July 1994) was a French tennis champion. He was one of the " Four Musketeers" from his country who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Borotra was imprisoned in Itter Castle ...

and

Jacques Brugnon Jacques Marie Stanislas Jean Brugnon (11 May 1895 – 20 March 1978), nicknamed "Toto", was a French tennis player, one of the famous " Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was born in and died ...

. In August 1933 he partnered with compatriot Jiro Sato to win the doubles title at the German Championships in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. He also competed in the 1933 U.S. National Championships, as the 10th seed. En route to the fourth round, where he was beaten by

Frank Shields Francis Xavier Alexander Shields Sr. (November 18, 1909 – August 19, 1975) was an American amateur tennis player of the 1920s and 1930s, and an actor known for '' Hoosier Schoolboy'' (1937). Tennis career Between 1928 and 1945 he was ranked ...

, Nunoi had wins over Americans Edward Jacobs, Samuel Gilpin and

George Lott George Martin Lott (October 16, 1906 – December 3, 1991) was an American tennis player and tennis coach who was born in Springfield, Illinois, United States. Lott is mostly remembered as being one of the greatest doubles players of all time. ...

. To defeat Lott, Nunoi once again had to come from two sets down.

Death

Nunoi served as a paymaster captain with the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He fought in the Burma campaign and took his own life on 21 July 1945.''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
"Ryosuke Nunoi; Former Japanese Davis Cup Tennis Star Dead at 36"
2 November 1946, Retrieved 10 June 2012.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunoi, Ryosuke 1909 births 1945 deaths Japanese male tennis players Sportspeople from Hyōgo Prefecture Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Japanese military personnel who committed suicide Japanese military personnel killed in World War II 1945 suicides Imperial Japanese Army officers 20th-century Japanese people