A maiden ATP World Tour title, first Grand Slam match win, career-high Emirates ATP Ranking and now a first Masters 1000 quarter-final. If you ask Yuichi Sugita if he's playing the best tennis of his career, the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Japanese tennis has been on the rise over the past decade, thanks in large part to Kei Nishikori's Top 5 breakthrough and statement as one of the game's most formidable threats. The nation has also experienced a surge of Top 100 stalwarts, including Yoshihito Nishioka, Taro Daniel, Go Soeda and Tatsuma Ito, but none of Nishikori's countrymen have experienced the success that 28-year-old Sugita is enjoying in 2017. "Many players are having their good results after 28 or...
Yuichi Sugita is through to the second round of the Western & Southern Open after surprising American No. 1 Jack Sock on Wednesday. In the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between the pair, the 28-year-old Japanese player advanced 7-5, 6-4. Sugita, No. 46 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, sent down seven aces and broke four times on his way past the World No. 16. It continues a solid run of form in Cincinnati after he defeated #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev and Nicolas Mahut en route to the third round last year, where he fell to Milos Raonic. Earlier this summer, he captured his first ATP World Tour title at Antalya (d. Mannarino). Portugal’s Joao Sousa is his next opponent in...
There was a touching moment in the bowels of the All England Club on Tuesday, seen by only a few. As Yuichi Sugita sat and waited in the corridor for the start of his first press conference as a match winner at a Grand Slam championship, the great champion Roger Federer stopped by to congratulate the Japanese on his recent success. Sugita, who has plied his trade since 2003, was visibly touched. It was a sign of mutual respect between pros, one the winner of an Open Era record 85 matches at The Championships, the other starting to make his mark on the ATP World Tour in 2017. [ALSO LIKE] At 28 years of age, Sugita has been a solid...
Yuichi Sugita completed the week of his career by playing his best tennis to capture his first ATP World Tour title at the Antalya Open after a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over France’s Adrian Mannarino. Read Report & Watch Highlights In becoming the third Japanese to lift an ATP World Tour trophy, following in the footsteps of Shuzo Matsuoka (1992 Seoul) and Kei Nishikori (11 titles), he surged up 22 spots to a career-high No. 44 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 28-year-old Sugita, the fourth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year, also picked up his ninth ATP Challenger Tour crown on the grass courts of the Aegon Surbiton Trophy (d. Thompson) last month. Mannarino also jumped 11...
