Ranked 28th in the world, Ai Sugiyama is Japan's highest-ranked, female tennis player. During a recent visit to Tokyo for the Toray Pan Pacific Open, she sat down with The Japan Times to give her views on Japanese tennis, the developing power game in the sport and to issue some advice and criticism to her male compatriots.
The Japan Times: You are a well established tennis professional. Growing up was this something that you always wanted to do? Could you tell us how you became involved in competitive tennis?
Ai: Well, I started when I was four years old. My parents used to play socially and I just instinctively followed them onto the court and started hitting balls. When I was 16 I started to play in challenger tournaments, turned pro the following year and began traveling around playing in events.