Doi, Soeda, Nishikori and Morita Representing Japan at US Open

Written by: Global Chick on 29th August 2011

Doi, Soeda, Nishikori and Morita Representing Japan at US Open

Misaki Doi of Japan returns to Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 22 June 2011. EPA/NEIL MUNNS |

Misaki Doi is playing the US Open for the first time in her career. She is currently ranked No. 106 on the singles ranking. Doi reached the third round at Wimbledon this year losing to Sabine Lisicki, who reached the semi-finals losing to Maria Sharapova.

Misaki Doi is first up at 11.00am on Court 6 against Spain’s Lara Pous-Tio. The Spanish player’s highest career ranking was in 2005 when she reached No. 74.

Go Soeda will be on second match after 11.00 on Court 8 against big serving South African Kevin Anderson. Soeda is also playing the US Open for the first time in his career. The 26-year-old had to go through qualifying to gain a spot at this year’s US Open main draw. Soeda took out Australian Greg Jones in the last round of qualifying.

Soeda’s current ranking is 123, and his career highest was in April this year when he reached No. 90 on the ATP Tour singles ranking. He has mainly played on the ATP Challenger Tour. Soeda qualified at Wimbledon but lost to Jo-Wifried Tsonga in the first round main draw in three sets.

Kevin Anderson will be a tough first round opponent for Soeda. The South African is ranked No. 34 in the world and he won a title earlier in the year in Johannesburg.

Japan’s number one player Kei Nishikori is first up at 11.00 on Court 13. Nishikori is currently No. 46 and that is his highest career ranking. The young Japanese player qualified and won two rounds at the Winston Salem Open last week. He lost in the third round to Juan Monaco of Argentina.

Kei Nishikori reached the semi-final of Eastbourne in June and he reached the final of the Houston tournament in April where he lost to American Ryan Sweeting. His first round oppoenent is Flavio Cipolla of Italy. The Italian is ranked 108 in the world. His best result in the last couple of weeks was when he qualified at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Montreal. Cipolla lost in the first round main draw to former world number three Nikolay Davydenko.

21-year-old Ayumi Morita will be playing her third US Open this year. Morita has never been past the first round before in the singles. She is ranked No. 46 on the WTA Rankings. Her best Grand Slam result came at this year’s Australian Open when she reached the third round. Morita had a great win over No. 27^th seed Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania in the first round. Morita lost in the third round to China’s Shuai Peng.