Shuko Aoyama
Shuko Aoyama (青山 修子, Aoyama Shūko, born December 19, 1987) is a *anese tennis player.
Aoyama became a professional tennis player after graduating from Waseda University. She reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 182 on 9 February 2015 and a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 4 on 28 February 2022. She has predominantly played doubles and has won 17 doubles *les on the WTA Tour, having had her most successful Grand Slam appearances at Wimbledon after reaching the semifinals at the 2013 and 2021 tournaments. She has also won four singles and 30 doubles *les on the ITF Women's Circuit.
Contents
- 1 Personal life and background
- 2 Professional career
- 2.1 2007–12: First steps, first WTA *le in doubles
- 2.2 2013–16: More success in doubles, Wimbledon semifinalist
- 2.3 2021-2022: WTA 1000 and four more WTA *les, Olympic & top 5 debut, WTA finals semifinalist; World No. 4
- 3 Performance timelines
- 3.1 Doubles
- 4 Significant finals
- 4.1 WTA Elite Trophy
- 4.1.1 Doubles: 1 (runner–up)
- 4.2 WTA 1000 tournaments
- 4.2.1 Doubles: 2 (1 *le, 1 runner-up)
- 4.1 WTA Elite Trophy
- 5 WTA career finals
- 5.1 Doubles: 27 (17 *les, 10 runner-ups)
- 6 ITF Circuit finals
- 6.1 Singles: 9 (4 *les, 5 runner–ups)
- 6.2 Doubles: 39 (30 *les, 9 runner-ups)
- 7 Notes
- 8 References
- 9 External links
Personal life and background
Aoyama started playing tennis at age 9. Her favorite surface is gr*. She studied at Waseda University in *an.
Professional career
2007–12: First steps, first WTA *le in doubles
Aoyama made her ITF Women's Circuit debut in the doubles event at Gifu in 2007. In March 2009, she won her first ITF *le at the $10K Kōfu doubles event. In June 2010, she won her first singles ITF *le at the $10K Tokyo event. In October 2010 at the *an Open, she made her debut at a WTA Tour main-draw event. She failed to qualify in singles and had more success in doubles, reaching her first WTA final. In late November 2010, she won the $75K Toyota doubles event. In June 2011, she made her WTA singles debut at the Birmingham Cl*ic as a qualifier. At the 2011 Wimbledon she made her Grand Slam debut in doubles. At the 2012 Citi Open in September, she won her first WTA *le in doubles. In September 2012 she won the $100K Ningbo. During the 2012 season, she also won two $50K events, the Lexington and the Bronx.
2013–16: More success in doubles, Wimbledon semifinalist
As time p*ed, Aoyama became mainly a doubles player, playing in doubles events preferentially to singles. She made a strong start to the 2013 season reaching the semifinal in the first week of January at the Shenzhen Open. Soon after, she won her first Grand Slam match at the Australian Open, but then lost in the second round playing with Irina Falconi. In March she won the Malaysian Open with Chang Kai-chen. Later she also had strong start to the gr*-season, reaching the semifinal at the Rosmalen Championships. She achieved more success at the Wimbledon, where she and Chanelle Scheepers reached the semifinal. This was her first significant Grand Slam result. In the semifinal-match they lost to Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai. In September she won the Citi Open for the second year in a row. At the end of the year she reached the semifinal of the Korea Open and won the $75K Toyota.
During the next three seasons she did not have as good performances as in the 2013 season. In 2014, in singles, her only significant result came at the end of the year, when she reached the final of the $75K Toyota but lost to An-Sophie Mestach. In doubles she won the Citi Open for the third year in a row, and later in October she won the *an Women's Open. During the year, she also had success on the ITF Women's Circuit. In May she won the $50K *uoka with Eri Hozumi, and later finished as runner-up at both the $50K Lexington and the $75K Toyota. In the first week of the 2015 season she reached the final at the Auckland Open playing with Renata Voráčová, they lost to Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci. A month later, she reached the final at the Thailand Open with Tamarine Tanasugarn. She then did not made any significant results until September. She then reached semifinal of the Korea Open, and later she won two $100K events, Nanjing and Tokyo. During 2016, she won one WTA doubles *le at the *an Open, and finished runner-ups at the Nuremberg Cup, Washington Open and Jiangxi Open. She also won three $50K events, in Quanzhou, Shenzen and Wuhan.
2021-2022: WTA 1000 and four more WTA *les, Olympic & top 5 debut, WTA finals semifinalist; World No. 4
Performance timelines
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record. To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.Doubles
Current through the 2022 Miami Open.
Significant finals
WTA Elite Trophy
Doubles: 1 (runner–up)
WTA 1000 tournaments
Doubles: 2 (1 *le, 1 runner-up)
WTA career finals
Doubles: 27 (17 *les, 10 runner-ups)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 9 (4 *les, 5 runner–ups)
Doubles: 39 (30 *les, 9 runner-ups)
Notes
References
External links
- Shuko Aoyama at the Women's Tennis *ociation
- Shuko Aoyama at the International Tennis Federation
- Shuko Aoyama at the Billie Jean King Cup
- *an Tennis *ociation profile (in *anese)