The 21st century
Japan · born Tokyo, 1975 · Wimbledon doubles champion with Kim Clijsters, 2003
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5
Wimbledon ladies' doubles finals: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007
1
Wimbledon title, the 2003 ladies' doubles with Kim Clijsters
110
Matches played at Wimbledon, 1993 to 2009
62
Consecutive major main draws, a record until Roger Federer passed it at Wimbledon in 2015
2004
Year of her Wimbledon singles quarter-final
Ai Sugiyama was born in Tokyo on 5 July 1975. She was world junior No. 1 at 15, made her major debut at Wimbledon in 1993 and won the All Japan Championships in 1995 and 1996. She won her first WTA singles title in Tokyo in 1997, the US Open mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi in 1999, and the 2000 US Open doubles with Julie Halard-Decugis; in October 2000 she became the first Japanese woman to be ranked No. 1 in doubles.
Coached by her mother, Fusako, from about 2001, she came out of a two-year slump and had her best year in 2003, winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon with Kim Clijsters. She reached No. 8 in singles in February 2004 and won six singles and 38 doubles titles in all. She set a record, for men or women, of 62 consecutive major main draws. She retired in October 2009 and founded a tennis academy in Japan.
| Wimbledon doubles finals | 2000 with Halard-Decugis, seeded four: lost to Serena and Venus Williams 6-3, 6-2. 2001 with Clijsters: lost to the top seeds Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs 6-4, 6-3. 2003 with Clijsters, seeded two: beat the top seeds Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez 6-4, 6-4. 2004 with Liezel Huber: lost to Cara Black and Stubbs 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). 2007 with Katarina Srebotnik: lost to Black and Huber 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon singles | Quarter-finalist in 2004. Beat the world No. 5 Anke Huber in 1996 on the way to the fourth round, her first win over a top-five player; fourth round again in 2003 and in 2006, when as 18th seed she beat Martina Hingis |
| Wimbledon 2007 semi-final | With Srebotnik came back from 1-6, 0-3 against the top seeds Raymond and Samantha Stosur to win in three sets |
| Other grass titles | Eastbourne doubles 2000 with Nathalie Tauziat and 2009 with Akgul Amanmuradova; Birmingham doubles 2005 with Daniela Hantuchová |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Women's doubles | with Kim Clijsters |
| Eastbourne | ||
| 2000 | Women's doubles | with Nathalie Tauziat |
| 2009 | Women's doubles | with Akgul Amanmuradova |
| Birmingham | ||
| 2005 | Women's doubles | with Daniela Hantuchová |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"By consistently doing what I'm able to do, it felt like an almost natural progression to the finals"
The person behind the player.
Tour, 2000s
Her mother, Fusako, took over as her coach around 2001. She studied training methods, found strong practice partners at each tour stop, and, by Sugiyama's account, switched between strict coach and gentle mother.
Source: Web Japan, 2003Wimbledon, 2003
Her 2003 Wimbledon doubles title with Clijsters was the third won by a Japanese player at the Championships and the first for 28 years. She also reached the last 16 in singles that fortnight.
Source: Web Japan, 2003Scottsdale, 2003
Scheduling problems at Scottsdale in 2003 put both semi-finals and both finals on the Sunday. In one day she saved a match point against Alexandra Stevenson, came from a set down to beat her doubles partner Clijsters in the singles final, and then won both doubles matches with Clijsters.
Source: Wikipedia1994 to 2009
She played 62 consecutive major main draws, then the record for any player, man or woman, until Roger Federer passed it in 2015. She received the WTA's sportsmanship award in 1999.
Source: LaureusFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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