Kei Nishikori Reaches World Tour Semi-Finals! November 14 2014
KEI NISHIKORI made more tennis history yesterday, beating Spain's DAVID FERRER - substituting for the injured MILOS RAONIC - to become the first Japanese player to reach the semi-finals of the BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS. Nishikori is the first Japanase player to be ranked in the ATP World Tour Top 10, but it is a little known-fact that more than seventy years ago Japansese star JIRO SATOH reached number three in the World rankings. Satoh's big years were 1932 and 1933, when he reached the semi-finals of the Gentlemen's Singles at Wimbledon. Extremely popular with the SW19 crowds, Satoh nevertheless suffered under the weight of expectation in his native Japan. He was drowned at sea in 1934, having apparently commited suicide.
Japan also has the oldest currently active player on the WTA Tour. Former Top 10 player KIMIKO DATE has made a dramatic comeback, and now at 44 she is ranked just outside the top hundred on the tour.