Ai Sugiyama was born on July 5, 1975 in Tokyo, Japan. She is a tennis player whose coach is her mother.

Biography and Career :

She became a professional player in 1992. Her mother is taking charge of her training and they travel together at all the tournaments.

As a mixed doubles player she won the final of US Open in 1999 along Mahesh Bhupathi. They beat Donald Johnson and Kimberly Po. She has played nine Grand Slam finals and has won three of them.

The first final was played along Julie Halard-Decugis in 2000 at the US Open and they defeated Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva. The next one took place at the French Open in 2003 and her partner was Kim Clijsters.

They beat the team of Virgi

nia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez. In the same year they obtained the same performance, but at Wimbledon. She has also played another two final at Roland Garros in 2006 and 2007 and four at Wimbledon in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2007.

Her performances as a single player at a Grand Slam tournament are: fourth round at the US Open in 2003 and 2004, fourth round at the French Open in 1995, 2000 and 2003, the quarter-finals at the Australian Open in 2000 and quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2004.

She participated at the Fed Cup for her country and has helped a lot. Her fitness and speed help her a lot during a match and even though she is not very tall she has an aggressive serve.

Until now (2007) she has won six WTA single titles and one ITF single title. Besides these she is a good doubles player and she has won 33 WTA doubles tournaments and 4 ITF doubles tournaments. The single titles were won between 1997 and 2004 at Tokyo, two times, Gold Coast, two times, Scottsdale and Linz. Her opponents in the finals were players like Amy Frazier, Maria Vento-Kabchi, Corina Morariu, Kim Clijsters or Nadia Petrova.

Trivia :

- Height: 163 cm
- Weight: 55 kg
- She plays: right-handed.
- She turned pro in 1992.

Career Review :

- Singles Record: 448-361
- Singles Titles: 7
- Doubles Record: 481-255
- Doubles Titles: 37
- Prize Money: $6,676,493
- Career High ATP Ranking - Singles: 8 (9-Feb-2004).
_{Ai Sugiyama Image : tribuneindia.com}

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Ai Sugiyama Pictures

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Tags: 1975, tokyo, tennis player, japan, tennis	[edit tags]

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Category: Sport Stars  - ( Sport Stars Archive)

Date Added: 01 February '08

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