Top 9 Japanese tennis players of all time

#1 Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka at the WTA Finals 2018

The only Japanese woman to have ever won a tennis singles Grand Slam title is Naomi Osaka.

Against all odds, battling the great Serena Williams and facing the ire of a very partisan New York crowd, the 20-year-old showed remarkable poise and calmness under pressure to make her country proud at the 2018 US Open.

Such was the significance of her victory in Japan that even the Japanese Prime Minister made her a congratulatory phone call immediately following her historic win.

Osaka's breakthrough season was the 2018 tennis season itself, where she emerged as the highest prize money earner. She won her very first WTA Premier tournament at the BNP Paribas Open early in the year.

Osaka is known to rake up service speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour despite her diminutive stature. In 2016, she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year, and within two years of that she broke into the top 5 of the WTA rankings.