Akira Santillan


Akira Santillan is a Japanese born, Australian tennis player.

Early life

Santillan was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and a South African father of Spanish descent. He lived the first 8 years of his life in Japan before his family relocated to the Gold Coast, Australia and became citizens. He played much of his junior tennis at the Gold Coast before moving to Brisbane to join the national academy program at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

Junior career

On the junior tour, Santillan has a career high ITF junior ranking of 7 achieved in September 2015. Santillan's major highlights on the junior tour included a semi-final at the 2015 Australian Open and doubles finals at the 2014 French Open and the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.
In March 2015, Santillan opted to play under the Japanese flag instead due to a fractious relationship with Tennis Australia. He returned to playing under the Australian flag in 2017.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles

Professional career

Santillan has a career high ATP singles ranking of 160 achieved on 24 July 2017. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of 265 achieved also on 17 July 2017. Santillan has won 6 ITF Futures singles titles and 1 ITF Futures doubles title.
Santillan made his ATP main draw debut at the 2016 Generali Open Kitzbühel, receiving singles and doubles main draw wildcards.

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 9 (7–2)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0Thailand F1, BangkokFuturesHard Kento Takeuchi6–3, 6–2
Loss1–1Thailand F2, BangkokFuturesHard Andre Dome4–6, 7–6, 1–6
Win2–1Spain F7, MadridFuturesHard Steven Diez6–4, 7–6
Loss2–2Spain F11, MostolesFuturesHard Antoine Escoffier4–6, 7–6, 3–6
Win3–2China F7, WuhanFuturesHard Chung Yun-seong6–1, 6–4
Win4–2China F8, LuanFuturesHard Finn Tearney6–3, 1–6, 6–4
Win5–2Spain F18, Palma del RíoFuturesHard Remi Boutillier7–5, 6–3
Win6–2Spain F39, Cuevas del AlmanzoraFuturesHard Roberto Ortega Olmedo6–1, 6–1
Win7–22017 Nielsen Pro Tennis Championships – Singles|Winnetka, USAChallengerHard Ramkumar Ramanathan7–6, 6–2

Doubles: 10 (4–6)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–1Spain F6, TarragonaFuturesClay Gonçalo Oliveira Marc López
Jaume Munar		7–6, 3–6,
Loss0–2Spain F8, MadridFuturesHard Carlos Gómez-Herrera Carlos Boluda-Purkiss
Alex de Minaur		4–6, 4–6
Win1–2China F7, WuhanFuturesHard Harry Bourchier He Yecong
Wang Aoxiong		4–6, 6–2,
Loss1–32016 Open Castilla y León – Men's Doubles|Segovia, SpainChallengerHard Joaquín Muñoz Hernández Purav Raja
Divij Sharan		3–6, 6–4,
Loss1–42016 Ningbo Challenger – Doubles|Ningbo, China, P.R.ChallengerHard Stefan Kozlov Jonathan Eysseric
Sergiy Stakhovsky		4–6, 6–7
Win2–4Spain F39, Cuevas del AlmanzoraFuturesHard Peter Bothwell Roberto Ortega Olmedo
David Vega Hernández		6–2, 5–7,
Win3–42018 Savannah Challenger – Doubles|Savannah, USAChallengerClay Luke Bambridge Enrique López Pérez
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan		6–2, 6–2
Loss3–52018 International Challenger Zhangjiagang – Doubles|Zhangjiagang, China, P.R.ChallengerHard Bradley Mousley Gong Maoxin
Zhang Ze		w/o
Win4–52018 Kobe Challenger – Doubles|Kobe, JapanChallengerHard Gonçalo Oliveira Li Zhe
Go Soeda		2–6, 6–4,
Loss4–62019 ATP Challenger China International – Nanchang – Doubles|Nanchang, China, P.R.ChallengerClay Alex Bolt Sander Arends
Tristan-Samuel Weissborn		2–6, 4–6