Shuko Aoyama
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 No. 5 on 15 November 2021. She has predominantly played doubles and has won 17 doubles titles 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 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Personal life and background. Aoyama started playing tennis  at age 9. Her favorite surface is grass. She studied at Waseda University in Japan. Professional career. 2007–12: First steps, first WTA title 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 title at the $10K Kōfu doubles event. In June 2010, she won her first singles ITF title at the $10K Tokyo event. In October 2010 at the Japan 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 Classic 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 title 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 passed, 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 grass-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 Japan Women's Open. During the year, she also had success on the ITF Women's Circuit. In May she won the $50K Fukuoka 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 title at the Japan 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. Performance timelines. Doubles. "Current through the 2022 Miami Open." Shuko Aoyama