Junri Namigata


Junri Namigata is a :Category:Japanese tennis players|Japanese professional tennis player. Her career-high WTA singles ranking is 105, which she reached in February 2011. Her career-high doubles ranking is 101, which she reached in May 2015.

Early life and amateur career

Namigata was born in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture and started playing tennis when she was six years old. She completed elementary school at a school in Koshigaya and won a regional tournament when in the third grade. She attended Fujimura Girls' Junior High School and Horikoshi High School in Tokyo. In September 1997, when still in junior high school, she made her first appearance in an ITF doubles tournament. When she was in her first year of high school she reached the round of 16 at the All Japan Tennis Championship and won the All Japan Junior Championship title in her final year of high school. She enrolled in the School of Social Sciences at Waseda University and in 2001 won the intercollegiate doubles title, was runner-up in the singles title, and was a member of the Waseda team that took out the team event. In 2004, she won the intercollegiate singles title and also won her first ITF doubles titles in October.

Professional career

Namigata turned professional in August 2005. after graduating from Waseda in April of the same year. Her goal was to finish her first year as a professional ranked in the top 200; she finished 2006 ranked 162 in singles. The first of her six singles titles came in July 2007.
In July 2014 Namigata won her first WTA event, the doubles tournament of the inaugural Jiangxi International Women's Tennis Open, partnering with China's Chuang Chia-Jung. 2014 was the most successful year of her career thus far, winning three ITF doubles titles and her first singles title since 2010. She finished the year ranked 196 in singles and 145 in doubles, returning to the top 200 in each category for the first time since 2011.

Grand Slam appearances

In singles, Namigata has qualified for two Grand Slam tournaments so far. At the 2011 Australian Open, she lost to Canadian Rebecca Marino in the first round. Later in the same year, she lost in the first round of the French Open to Aleksandra Wozniak.
In doubles, she qualified for the 2008 Wimbledon tournament with fellow Japanese player Ayumi Morita, losing in the first round to Ekaterina Makarova and Selima Sfar. In January 2017, Namigata and Chan Chin-wei received wild-card entry into the Australian Open, losing in the first round to Tatjana Maria and Pauline Parmentier.

Fed Cup

Namigata represented Japan in the Asia/Oceania group of the 2011 Fed Cup.

WTA career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner–up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12007 PTT Bangkok Open – Doubles|Bangkok Open, ThailandTier IIIHard Ayumi Morita Sun Tiantian
Yan Zi
w/o

WTA 125 series finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 23 (7 titles, 16 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–1Jul 2004ITF Inchon, South Korea10,000Hard Lee Eun-jeong0–6, 6–3, 0–6
Loss0–2May 2006ITF Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam25,000Hard Katarína Kachlíková4–6, 4–6
Win1–2Jul 2007ITF Miyazaki, Japan25,000Carpet Zhang Shuai6–4, 6–2
Loss1–3Oct 2007ITF Hamanako, Japan25,000Carpet Yanina Wickmayer6–4, 4–6, 2–6
Loss1–4Apr 2009ITF Changwon, South Korea25,000Hard Elena Baltacha3–6, 1–6
Win2–4May 2009ITF Gunma, Japan25,000Carpet Hsu Wen-hsin6–1, 6–1
Win3–4Jul 2009ITF Miyazaki, Japan10,000Carpet Shiho Akita7–6, 6–2
Loss3–5Aug 2009ITF Obihiro, Japan25,000Carpet Kurumi Nara6–7, 6–4, 4–6
Win4–5May 2010ITF Fukuoka, Japan50,000Grass Nikola Hofmanova6–1, 6–2
Loss4–6May 2010ITF Kusatsu, Japan25,000Carpet Akiko Yonemura4–6, 6–7
Win5–6Aug 2010ITF Beijing, China75,000Hard Zhang Shuai7–6, 6–2
Loss5–6Nov 2010ITF Toyota, Japan75,000Carpet Misaki Doi7–5, 6–2
Loss5–8Oct 2011ITF Hamanako, Japan25,000Carpet Karolína Plíšková2–6, 6–7
Loss5–9May 2012ITF Karuizawa, Japan25,000Grass Marta Sirotkina4–6, 6–2, 4–6
Loss5–10May 2013ITF Karuizawa, Japan25,000Grass Eri Hozumi6–7, 3–6
Loss5–11Jun 2014ITF Changwon, South Korea25,000Hard Hong Hyun-hui6–2, 4–6, 3–6
Loss5–12Jun 2014ITF Kashiwa, Japan10,000Hard Riko Sawayanagi4–6, 6–7
Win6–12Aug 2014ITF Tsukuba, Japan25,000Hard Chang Kai-chen6–0, 7–6
Loss6–13Oct 2014ITF Hamamatsu, Japan25,000Carpet Riko Sawayanagi6–2, 2–6, 3–6
Loss6–14May 2017ITF Karuizawa, Japan25,000Carpet Ayano Shimizu6–0, 4–6, 4–6
Loss6–15Sep 2017ITF Nanao, Japan25,000Carpet Carol Zhao3–6, 2–6
Loss6–16Oct 2018ITF Makinohara, Japan25,000Carpet Momoko Kobori2–6, 3–6
Win7–16Sep 2019ITF Nanao, Japan25,000Carpet Ayano Shimizu7–6, 4–6, 6–2

Doubles (25–24)