Ai Sugiyama

From Freepedia

Ai Sugiyama (杉山愛) (born July 5, 1975, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1992. In her career so far, she has won 37 titles: 6 in singles and 31 in doubles, including three Grand Slam women's doubles titles (1 with Frenchwoman Julie Halard-Decugis and 2 partnering Belgian Kim Clijsters). Coached by her mother, Ai plays a more aggressive game than her predecessor Kimiko Date, using her fitness and speed, as well as aggressive serve and volley whenever feasible.

In 1993, she made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon. In 1994, she reached her first WTA Tour singles final. She went on to win the Japan Open doubles at Tokyo, her first tour title. Later that year, she broke into the WTA Top 100. In 1995, she won her first Grand Slam match and reached the 4th round of Roland Garros. In 1996, she reached the 4th round at Wimbledon. She represented Japan at the Atlanta Olympics where she defeated Martina Hingis to reach the 3rd round.

In 1997, she won her first WTA Tour title (Japan Open) defeating Amy Frazier in the final. Later that year, she broke into the WTA Top 20. In 1998, she defeated then world no. 4 Amanda Coetzer at Berlin and world no. 7 Steffi Graf at San Diego. In 1999, she won the US Open mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi (India), her first Grand Slam title.

On October 23, 2000, she became the first Japanese woman to rank No. 1 in the world in doubles. That year, she won seven doubles titles.

Without doubt, Ai's best tournament was in Scottsdale 2003. She won 8 doubles titles : 7 with Kim Clijsters (Sydney, Antwerp, Scottsdale, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, San Diego, Zurich) and 1 with Liezel Huber (Linz). Until then, many tennis fans would have seen her career as history, having sank in singles rankings to 49 in 2001 and barely coming back to the top 25-30 in the next two years. Having scraped off her only victory against Lindsay Davenport in the second round and Serena Williams withdrawing from the event, she saved a matchpoint in semifinals against Alexandra Stevenson before defeating Kim Clijsters in the finals. Ai played both semis and finals of singles and doubles in the same day and emerged with two trophies in her hands at the end of the day.

2003 proved to be her best year ever, having pushed Serena Williams to the limit at Roland Garros and reaching round of 16 in Wimbledon and US Open as well (her 4R defeat to Francesca Schiavone at Flushing Meadows was rather controversial). She also finished the year ranked 10, having defeated world number one Justine Henin-Hardenne.

While her tennis career may end soon, she is still not sure about her future plans. In collaboration, her autobiography co-authored with her mother Fusako, she states an interest in both coaching and playing doubles. Although inspired by her mother's personality and achievements, she tries to carve her own life independently.

Her father is in the medical field while her younger sister Mai is an amateur golf player. Through her family, she was baptized in a Catholic church in 1999, but does not make her faith as explicit as Michael Chang does. Her mother recounts that Ai grew up without trouble nor much parental guidance and as a result, as enjoyed raising children.

Women's Tennis Association \| Top ten Asian female tennis players as of September 2005
1. Ai Sugiyama (Japan) \| 2. Peng Shuai (China)\| 3. Sania Mirza (India) 4. Shinobu Asagoe (Japan) \| 5. Zheng Jie (China) \| 6. Na Li (China) \| 7. Akiko Morigami (Japan) 8. Aiko Nakamura (Japan) \| 9. Cho Yoon-jeong (Korea) \| 10. Tiantian Sun (China)