Ai Sugiyama

[Gizo]

I'd thought I'd start an 'appreciation' thread for one of my favourite ever female tennis players, Ai Sugiyama.

I loved her cross court backhand and the angles that she could generate with it, and she was very good volleyer. Plus her inside out forehand when firing was a nice weapon. I found her aggressive counterpunching style, mixed it with defensive scrambling when required, fun to watch.

She was incredibly tenacious, worked very hard, and had tremendous fitness. It was notable how infrequently she was injured over such a long career. And the fact that she smiled so much on the court, and clearly loved tennis and the fact that she was enjoying a successful professional career within the sport, was very endearing. I was lucky enough to speak to her in person, and thought that she was incredibly friendly. She was very popular amongst her peers, and the fact so many fellow WTA players were clearly emotional (not least her doubles partner at the time Hantuchova) during her retirement ceremony at Tokyo in 2009, was notable.

My favourite memory of her, ahead of the fact that she climbed to world no. 8 in the rankings, won several doubles majors, reached quarter-finals at majors in singles, has got to be her heroics at Scottsdale in 2003.

As a result of rain delays, in one day on the Sunday she:

1) Won her 3 set singles semi-final against Stevenson, saving 3 match points during the final set tiebreak.
2) Came from a set down to beat her doubles partner Clijsters in a tough 3 set singles final (for perspective Clijsters had a 90-12 W/L record in singles that year), to win the biggest singles title of her career up to that point. Clijsters was 2 points away from a straight sets win during the 2nd set.
3) Teamed up with Clijsters to win their doubles semi-final against Bartoli / Cohen-Aloro.
4) Teamed up with Clijsters to win the doubles final against Davenport / Raymond, i.e. 2 players with glittering doubles careers that had already won several titles together by that stage.

She had also beaten Davenport in their 2nd round singles match, so an incredible ending to a stellar week for her.

 

[skaj]

One of the quickest players I have seen.

 

[martinezownsclay]

I liked her a lot, and she was always a player I rooted for. Honestly though I do think she was a bit of an overachiever if anything. She didn't have the neccessary firepower in the era she played in, nor did she even have that much feel or variety in the game like people like Hingis or Schnyder either. I even saw her twice in slams get tripled in winners in losing to HUSAROVA of all people, which kind of sums up her limitations in some ways. She was quite quick around the court, very consistent, and very determined, tough mentally, and that is what led to her impressive career. She was lots of fun to watch as she gave it 100% each time out. Her doubles career, when her game seemed so ill suited to doubles, was especialy impressive.

Scotsdale 2003 was definitely the tournament of her life.

 

[Gizo]

I agree that she had tremendous speed, and I also thought that she had pretty nice dropshots.

On the singles front, her beating Zvonareva and Petrova to win the title at Linz in 2003, helping her to ultimately qualify for the YEC, was another big highlight. In the final against Petrova, she played very aggressively from the baseline and also came to the net as often as she could, and it paid off.

Clijsters and her won 8 doubles titles together in 2003 on practically every type of surface, including the RG-Wimbledon double. In both those finals they beat Ruano Pascual / Suarez - Suarez was another player that I liked a lot.

She had a funny match at San Diego in 2002 against Hantuchova (who was very much on the rise that year). She had a match point in the 3rd set, and Hantuchova received a second time violation and a point penalty therefore ending things. Hantuchova certainly learned from that experience and played more quickly afterwards as a result. The following week she straight setted Capriati in Los Angeles, with Rubin impressively beating Serena, Dokic and Davenport to win that title.

And speaking of Hantuchova, who became her doubles partner during her final season in 2009, during their Australian Open QF against Black / Huber, they were down 2-5 in the 3rd set and then 2-6 in the decisive tiebreak, before saving 7 match points to win it. Huber was IMO one of the most of unlikeable and bratty players around, so that was glorious.

 

[martinezownsclay]

She and Clijsters were a fun team to watch. They mostly played baseline tennis in doubles, but they did come in sometimes, unlike say Saurez and Ruana Pascual who literally never came in.