List of The Prince of Tennis characters

Protagonists

Ryoma Echizen

Kunimitsu Tezuka

Shuichiro Oishi

Shusuke Fuji

• Yuki Kaida, Adam Lawson and Johnny Yong Bosch

Sadaharu Inui

Eiji Kikumaru

Takeshi Momoshiro

Takashi Kawamura

Kaoru Kaido

Sumire Ryuzaki

Opponents

Fudoumine

• Kippei Tachibana is the captain of Fudoumine. He was originally from the Kyūshū region of Japan, where he attended Shishigaku Middle School. He and his close friend, Chitose, led their team to the semifinals of the Nationals as the top two players of the region. Tachibana is a very aggressive player, and during an intra-school ranking match, he injured Chitose after deciding to try out his new move, the Wild Ball, which makes it look like there are numerous balls coming at one time. He cuts and stops bleaching his hair, moves with his father and sister, and eventually starts with the Fudoumine club in order to play Chitose again. He uses the "Moujuu Aura", which draws out his natural style and increases his physical abilities, especially when using his "Abare Dama" frame of racket shot, as well as the "Abare Jishi". In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is voiced by Yoshihisa Kawahara in Japanese media, and Doug Erholtz in English media. He is played by Takuma Sugawara, YOH, Takashi Kitadai, Yuusuke Ueda and Soramu Aoki in the musicals.
• Akira Kamio is the vice-captain of Fudoumine, who normally plays singles or doubles with his long-time friend Shinji Ibu. His style focuses on speed and "rhythm" of his feet; in other words, he's extremely fast. He uses the "Sonic Bullet" shot, which seems to disappear, and the "Quick-Drop Serve", which is hit before it rises to the top, throwing off the opponents timing and slightly increasing the speed. He has a crush on An, and is jealous when she goes out with Momoshiro. He later learns to use Tachibana's Wild Beast Aura to greatly increase his speed. In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U-17 team. He is voiced by Chihiro Suzuki in Japanese media, and by David Neil Black in English media. He is played by Matsui Yasuyuki, Yuki Fujiwara, Kinari Hirano and Ryujiro Izaki in the musicals, and Yuki Fujiwara reprises that role in the live action film.
• Shinji Ibu normally plays singles or doubles with his best friend Akira Kamio. He often mumbles and rambles without realizing other people can hear him, making him a moody person in general. He utilizes the "Kick Serve", which bounces upward to the right, similarly to the twist serve. However, his main ability is to sense muscle tension in others, allowing him to utilize a passive-offensive style of tennis that forces his opponent's arm muscles to freeze briefly, forcing them to miss the point. In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U-17 team. He is voiced by Eiji Moriyama in Japanese media, and Kirk Thornton in English media. He is played by Ryōsei Konishi, Motohiro Oota, Kazuhiro Okazaki, and KENTO in the musicals, and Yasuka Saitoh in the live action film.
• Tetsu Ishida normally plays doubles with Masaya Sakurai, who has a special power shot known as the Hadokyuu, an extremely powerful flat groundstroke that uses 120% of the user's strength. He learned it from his elder brother Gin, who for some strange reason attends the much further away Shitenhoji Middle School. It puts an extreme strain on his arm at first, which cause Tachibana to disallow him from using it until he masters it. He later learns to use Tachibana's Wild Beast Aura, where he not only becomes more powerful, but also acquires the ability to perform a Hadokyuu off of a backhand without stepping forward. Tetsu Ishida is played by Mamoru Miyano, Kyoushirou Takagi and Taro Nakamura in the musicals, and Masaya Sakurai is played by Shun Takagi, Fumiya Takahashi and Ryotaro in the musicals.
• Kyosuke Uchimura, nicknamed "The Forward Net Killer" plays doubles with Tatsunori Mori. Kyousuke Uchimura is played by Mao Katou and Masaki Takane in the musicals, and Tatsunori Mori is played by Youichiro Omi and Tatsuya Kobayashi in the musicals.
• An Tachibana the cute younger sister of Kippei. She is a member of the girls tennis club, and often supports her brother's team. An cares very much for her brother and her friends from both the Seigaku and Fudoumine teams and tries to help them as much as possible. She is often seen with either Momoshiro or Kamio. She is voiced by Akiko Kimura in the Japanese media, and Jennifer Sekiguchi in the English media.

  St. Rudolph

• Yoshiro Akazawa is the captain of the team and the doubles partner of Ichiro Kaneda, a soft-spoken player called a "prodigal doubles player." He is initially a singles player until being paired with Kaneda by Mizuki, which leaves him unable to properly play until Kaneda, who normally looks up to Akazawa, yells at him. The pair of Akazawa and Kaneda provide St. Rudolph's only victories in their losses to Seigaku and Hyoutei. Akazawa also defeated a Seigaku regular in the year prior to the manga's storyline. He is able to hit a shot that causes rapid movement of the ball, causing it to appear as a mass of balls to people with exceptional eyesight. He is voiced by Masami Iwasaki in the Japanese anime, and played by Kenji Aoki, Kenta Izuka and Kenya Nakao in the musicals.
• Takuya Nomura is the vice-captain, and the weakest member of the team according to Mizuki, though he often claims that he is the strongest. He is voiced by Takayuki Kondo in the Japanese media and played by Daiki Sagawa in the musicals.
• Hajime Mizuki is the manager of the team who transfers from another school. He scouts talented players from around the country to join the tennis team in hopes of creating an elite team. He also uses data tennis like Inui, but unlike Inui's predictions, Mizuki's data tennis focuses on finding the opponent's weakness and targets them. This allows him to also create match up orders that are favorable to his team. Mizuki is also shown to be very ruthless, teaching Yuta Fuji the Twist Spin Shot, despite the fact that it could cause severe damage to Yuta's underdeveloped arm, and didn't inform him. His arrogance also comes back to bite him when he believes that he has collected all the data on Shusuke Fuji, only to be humiliated by him. In New Prince of Tennis, he is one of the 50 middle schoolers to be invited to the U-17 camp, though he is rarely seen outside of occasional commentary on other players. He is voiced by Akira Ishida in the Japanese media, Steve Staley in the English media and played by Hidemasa Shiozawa, Yutaka Kobayashi and Kodai Miyagi in the musicals.
• Yuta Fuji is the younger brother of Shusuke Fuji who constantly overshadows him. Originally a student at Seigaku, he declines to join the tennis team and is eventually scouted by Mizuki. He hits at difficult angles for left-handed players, causing him to be known as the "Lefty-Killer." He uses the Rising Shot, which hits the ball on the rise, giving the opponents less time to react. Mizuki teaches him the Twist Spin Shot, which puts a topspin on the ball, causing it to bounce upwards, though it puts a heavy strain on undeveloped shoulders. Yuta is later made aware of this fact, but continues to use the move every now and then. In New Prince of Tennis, he is one of the 50 middle schoolers to be invited to the U-17 camp. Yuta is voiced by Makoto Tomita in Japanese media, Tom Gibis in English media and played by KENN, Seiya Konishi and Kaiki Ohara in the musicals.
• Ichiro Kaneda is a relatively quiet doubles player for St. Rudolph. Aside from Akazawa, Kaneda is the only other member of the team who was initially from St. Rudolph, prior to Mizuki's arrival and subsequent recruiting of other skilled players. Although he has a great deal of respect for his Captain, he lashes out at him during their match against Oishi and Kikumaru. Although Akazawa initially attacks him and tells him to shut up, he then calms his head and begins listening to Kaneda, who guides the pair to victory. He is voiced by Yoshihisa Kawahara in the Japanese media, and played by Yuki Ohtake, Shotaro Ookubo and Kaisei Kamimura in the musicals.
• Shinya Yanagisawa is a doubles player, who frequently partners with Atsushi. He is very comical in his personality and style, as he almost always ends his sentences with "dane" in the Japanese dub, whereas in English other characters refer to him as a duck, possibly because of the way his mouth protrudes. He is voiced by Norihisa Mori in the Japanese media, Darell Guilbeau in the English media and played by Mitsuyoshi Shinoda, Sho Jinnai and Riku Ozeki in the musicals.
• Atsushi Kisarazu is the twin brother of Rokkaku's Ryou. Mizuki mistakenly scouts Atsushi instead of his brother, so he forces Atsushi to distinguish himself by cutting his hair and wearing a headband. Atsushi's signature shot is a fake smash, which he then turns into a volley, catching his opponents off guard. He is voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka in the Japanese media, Peter Doyle in the English media and played by Ryosuke Kato, Daisuke Hirose and Yugo Sato in the musicals.

  Yamabuki

• Kentaro Minami is the captain of the team. He is a doubles player who typically plays with the vice captain of the team, Higashikata Masami. They are strong in the basics and use a strategy to pressure opponents. Together, he and Higashikata are known as the Jimmies, referring to jimi, the Japanese word for plain or dull. Kentarou is voiced by Masaki Ishikawa in the Japanese media and played by Hiroshi Yazaki, Jouji Saotome, and Naoya Kitagawa in the musicals.
• Masami Higashikata is a 3rd year student and the vice-captain of the team. He is the doubles partner of Captain Kentarou Minami. He is voiced by Yoshikazu Nagano in the Japanese media and played by Iori Hayashi, Takeshi Terayama, and Yoshiro Tsuji in the musicals.
• Kiyosumi Sengoku, known as Lucky Sengoku, is a third year student, and is one of the keys to Yamabuki's strategy of finishing opposing teams off quickly. He is a happy-go-lucky guy with a strong tennis sense and extremely sharp eyes able to discern fast moving balls. His stronger weapons are the jumping serve, known as "Kohou " and the "Dunk Smash". He is known as a National level player, and was invited to the Junior Senbatsu training camp in his second year after Tezuka declined. Despite those honors, he suffered losses to both Momoshiro in the Prefectural tournament and Kamio in the Kanto tournament. In the anime, he leaves the Yamabuki team for a short while after those losses. He throws away his old style of tennis, trains in boxing, and forms "Boxing Tennis", which focuses on the three-minute limit in a boxing round. When he comes back to go to the camp to be chosen for the Goodwill Games between Japan and America, his new style, "Boxing Tennis", becomes a turning point in his style of play. He is voiced by Kōsuke Toriumi in the Japanese media and played by Masato Wada, Seiya, and Touya Morita in the musicals.
• Jin Akutsu is a punk, who is called a once-per-decade tennis player and known as a monster. A very cynical person, he hates to be bossed around and physically punishes those who order him to do something. He is very violent, attempts to cause conflict constantly, and also smokes in the manga. His unusual flexibility allows him to hit balls in all sorts of unnatural positions. Combined with his naturally high speed, this allows him to play offensively almost non-stop. He was trained in tennis at young age, but gave up after finding it boring due to a lack of competition. Mikiya Banda was able to recruit him under the promise of being able to hurt others and that he may leave once he loses. Akutsu is raised alone by his mother, Yuuki, who is heavily implied to have a lot of trouble disciplining Akutsu. Akutsu has also been a friend of Takashi Kawamura since taking karate together. After hurting Ryoma and his friends at Seigaku for Ryoma spoiling his "fun" at Ginka, he suffers his first ever loss in a match against Ryoma in the Prefectural tournament. He gives up tennis, having finally lost, encourages his fan, Dan, to look up to Ryoma instead, and generally becoming more content with people. He returns during the National Semifinals, catching Kawamura when he is sent flying into the stadium, and gives him encouragement to not forfeit. Akutsu is also among the former rivals of Ryoma who play matches with him after he loses his memory to help him regain his memories of tennis. In the anime, he also helps Ryoma regain confidence after a loss to Sanada. He reappears as a candidate for the Japanese U-17 team where, despite his absence from tennis following the Perfectuals, had become even stronger. It is revealed that he was subtly convinced to play tennis again by Sengoku after the former was having a lot of internal conflict about a genuine desire to play tennis again. By this time, he learns to legitimately enjoy tennis and loses most of his violent tendencies, and becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers chosen for the All-Japan U-17 team, though he keeps insisting he's only playing tennis again so as to finally beat Ryoma. He is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the Japanese media, and played by JURI, Ryoutarou Shimizu, Takuya Kishimoto, and Shota Kawakami in the musicals.
• Ichiuma Kita, a 2nd year, and Inakichi Nitobe, a third year, are two cynical doubles partners known for making silly puns. They are played by Jin Aoki and Yuuma Tonishiro
• Toji Muromachi is a 2nd year student, referred to as Yamabuki's eternal secret weapon. He always wears sunglasses to the point where he has a tan line under them, and thinks highly of Sengoku. He is played by Takahiko Yanagisawa, Kenshō Ono, and Yuji Nishina in the musicals.
• Tsubasa Nishikiori is the replacement for Akutsu after he quits tennis.
• Taichi Dan is a 1st year student and the manager of the team. He believes he is worthless because of his size and looks up to Akutsu because of his strength. Akutsu tells him to become stronger, which leads to him joining the team as a player. He is also inspired by seeing Ryoma play, realizing that even someone who is short can excel in tennis. He wears a headband that was given to him by Akutsu. After Yamabuki loses in the Nationals, Sengoku tells him that it will be up to him in the following season. In the anime, he copies Ryoma's style and techniques, such as "Twist Serve" and "Drive B", and challenges him to a match, which he loses badly. In the Japanese dub, he ends almost all of his sentences with "desu". He is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi in Japanese media and played by Yuki Kawakubo, Reiya Masaki, and Mashiro Sano in the musicals.
• Mikaya Banda or "Banji" for short, is Yamabuki's coach. He is an eccentric old man who understands his players well, understanding that the key to getting Akutsu to take tennis seriously was just a matter of finding a suitable challenge, and is good friends with Coach Ryuzaki.

  Hyoutei Academy

• Keigo Atobe is the captain of Hyoutei. As a former European junior champion, he was relatively unknown in Japan until he defeated all of the members of the team in his first year and the Seigaku captain in his second year. He is severely narcissistic and arrogant, often using the quote "Be awed at the sight of my prowess!". He comes from a very wealthy family, and owns multiple chateaus, mansions, and vehicles, which are often used to benefit the team. Despite his personality, he trains constantly and takes pride in the team. He has rivalries with Tezuka, Sanada, and Ryoma. Atobe, using his superior eyesight, is able to use "insight" to quickly determine another player's weakness, which he uses to his own advantage. He eventually develops it to the point where he is able to anticipate the spin of the tennis ball by looking at the way his opponent hits it and apply the proper counterspin. He evolves it even further into his "World of Ice", which allows him to find dead angles a player is unable to reach and hit balls with pinpoint accuracy and timing towards these areas. He also uses the Rondo Towards Destruction, a powerful smash that knocks the opponent's racket away and allow Atobe to smash it once again, and the Tannhauser Serve, which spins rapidly down the court instead of bouncing on impact. In New Prince of Tennis, he evolves his insight skill to the point where he can see his opponent's skeleton to determine their absolute dead zones, a technique he calls Atobe Kingdom. He and Niou wins their doubles match against the U-17 first string to earn the No. 9/10 position. He is also later named Captain of the U-17's Jr. Youth division for the World Cup. Since his initial appearance, Atobe has become one of the most popular characters in The Prince of Tennis series. According to Takeshi Konomi, fans initially didn't like Atobe when he was trying to destroy Tezuka's arm, but by the conclusion of the match, he had become one of their favorite characters. In the 4th characters' popularity ranking, Atobe was voted first with a total of 12,913 votes, soundly beating Shusuke Fuji, who came in second with 6116 votes. Besides Ryoma Echizen, Atobe has released more character CDs than any other character in the series, and is the only other character to have two full-length albums. One of his singles reached top nine in the weekly charts, the best result for any Prince of Tennis character CDs. He is voiced by Junichi Suwabe in Japanese media, Yuri Lowenthal in English media, played by Kazuki Kato, Yuki Kubota, Masahiro Inoue, Tsunenori Aoki, Shota Onuma, and Miura Hiroki in the musicals, and by Ryuuji Sainei in The Prince of Tennis live action film.
• Munehiro Kabaji is a powerful hitter with a pure mind much like a baby. He rarely speaks and answers Atobe's questions only with "usu". Due to his personality, he can instantly copy the moves of anyone he faces. He's generally very efficient at copying techniques, but his results are sometimes inferior if the said technique requires a biological factor or considerable experience. In New Prince of Tennis, he earns the No. 13 position from the U-17 first string, but subsequently gets kicked out of the selection camp when he interfered with Atobe's match to protect him. Kabaji has appeared in every single character popularity poll for the series run by Shonen Jump. He came in 31st in the first poll, and 33rd in the second poll. He fell to 41st in the third poll, but he reached his highest ranking in the fourth poll, coming in 28th. He is voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka in the anime, and played by Ryo Washimi, Jouji Kawada, Hiroyuki Furuie, and Yamaki Takanori in the musicals, and by Kazutoshi Yamakawa in the live action film.
• Jiro Akutagawa is called the "magic volleyer" of Hyoutei Academy. His play style, which focuses on returning balls directly from the net using his very flexible wrists, is inspired by Rikkai's Bunta Marui, who defeated him in a match two years earlier. Once he's at the net, he can hit volleys from any position and they can land almost anywhere with very little bounce, making them very difficult to return. He constantly sleeps, and he is very excitable. Takeshi Konomi originally intended Jirou to be a lazy genius character, but he went off course, ultimately becoming a more lighthearted character. Jirou has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 25th place. In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 13th place. He is voiced by Yuji Ueda in the anime, played by Konma Takuya, Taiki Naitou, Tomoru Akazawa, and Tamura Shogo in the musicals, and by Genki Ishii in the live action film.
• Yushi Oshitari is the genius of Hyoutei Academy. Originally from Osaka, he is called "Oshitari of the one thousand skills" due to his ability to copy moves such as Shusuke Fuji's Bear Drop and Atobe's Tannhauser Serve. He also has several of his own unique shots, which he refers to by acronyms such as "FAS" and "SSAS". He is initially the doubles partner of Gakuto Mukahi, but moves up to Singles during the Nationals Tournament. During the two matches with Seigaku, Oshitari forms a rivalry with Momoshiro, and comes to respect his skill. He wears glasses without a prescription just to look smarter. Oshitari has been popular since his introduction in the series, and has done well on all of the Prince of Tennis character popularity polls run by Weekly Shonen Jump since then. In the second poll, he debuted in 9th place. He moved up to 5th place in the third poll, and came in 7th place in the fourth poll. He is voiced by Hidenobu Kiuchi in the anime, played by Takumi Saito, Shintarou Akiyama, Takuya Kikuchi, and Isaka Ikumi in the musicals, and by Daiki Nakae in the live action film.
• Gakuto Mukahi is Yushi Oshitari's doubles partner. He has acrobatic skills rivaling and even surpassing those of Seigaku's Eiji, but has low stamina, which he overcomes through practice. He has a respectful friendship with Oshitari, which leads him to train his stamina in order to keep from holding Oshitari back. His special technique is the Moon Salute, which requires Gakuto to jump extremely high into the air, somersaulting, and returning the ball at a difficult angle. Gakuto came in 6th place in the fourth popularity poll. He is voiced by Soichiro Hoshi in the anime, played by Ruito Aoyagi, Seiji Fukuyama, Jun Shison, and Kitano Satsuki in the musicals, and by Tokio Emoto in the live action film.
• Ryo Shishido is known as Hyoutei's "dash specialist" due to his speed and ability to return almost any ball. He is initially dropped from the regulars after being humiliated 6–0 by Kippei Tachibana, but he soon cuts his precious long hair and makes a return to the team. He join with Chotarou Ohtori in doubles, and they become very close. After hard training, he develops the Rising Counter, which hits the ball directly after it bounces, which is strengthened by his dashing. Shishido has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 20th place. In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 12th place. He is voiced by Toshiyuki Kusuda in the anime, played by Kenta Kamakari, Ryouta Murai, Kousuke Kuwano, and Kobayakawa Shunsuke in the musicals, and by Junpei Suzuki in the live action film.
• Chotaro Ohtori is Ryo Shishido's doubles partner and close friend. He helps Shishido get back on the team, which makes the two very close. Chotaro has a very fast serve called the Scud Serve, which can go up to 200 km/h, though it is limited in accuracy until he masters it. He later renames it the Neo Scud Serve, which goes up to 215 km/h. He recites "one shot with all my soul" while serving. Chotaro has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump popularity polls since his introduction. In the second poll, he came in 19th place. In the third he came in 20th place, and moved up to 16th place in the fourth poll. He is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa in the anime, played by Koji Date, Yuusuke Seto, Li Yong En, Jin Shirasu, and Watanabe Aoto in the musicals, with Koji Date reprising the role in the live action film.
• Wakashi Hiyoshi uses an unorthodox style of tennis he dubs Embu Tennis, which combines martial arts with standard tennis, allowing him to hit fast shots that can easily land in corners. It was developed after the coach tells him to hit in his most natural form after noting that Hiyoshi's follow through was extremely slow in the conventional tennis stance. Hiyoshi's motto is "gekokujou" meaning "to defeat the greater and take his place". In the English manga "gekokujou" is translated as 'overthrow'. Hiyoshi is expected to be the next Hyoutei captain after Atobe graduates. Like Mukahi, he has stamina issues, something he overcomes by New Prince of Tennis. In the fourth popularity poll for the series conducted by Shonen Jump, Hiyoshi came in 10th place. He is voiced by Masami Iwasaki in the anime, and played by Ryunosuke Kawai, Kei Hosogai, Daiki Ise, and Utsumi Akiyoshi in the musicals.

  Josei Shonan

• Aoi Hanamura is the coach of the team, who refers to her students as masterpieces and constantly tries to recruit new students, especially Ryoma. She is often proud of her own prowess and of her pupils', but is otherwise very calm and professional. In the anime, she is voiced by Kaori Yamagata.
• Takahisa Kajimoto is the serious and soft-spoken captain. His flexibility is used in his serve, the L-drive Serve, where he bends his entire body back and releases it like a catapult. In the anime, he is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi.
• Hiroshi Wakato is the vice-captain, who can copy any famous professional tennis player's playing style using his Change Over technique, even copying their smallest habits. With this move, he can change his play style easily and when his opponent finally gets used to his style, he changes over again. Though he passes it off as just copying, he spends countless hours practicing. He is very popular, even having his own fanclub, which follows him to his official matches.
• Reiji Shinjo is known as Hanamura's greatest "masterpiece", with his techniques involving very powerful shots known as Mirage. The powerful shots are indistinguishable from a regular return or serve, leaving opponents confused. Another technique he has is the Deep Impulse, which is a powerful shot that also can be used as a serve that will injure the opponent, and consecutive attempts to return the Deep Impulse may injure the player to the point of unable to play tennis anymore.
• Yohei Tanaka plays doubles with his younger, twin brother, Kouhei Tanaka. He is often mistaken for a girl due to his short, dark pink hair. Kouhei is often in the same situation due to his long blue hair. He has very good hearing, which, together with his brother's good eyesight, allows them to predict their opponents moves.
• Sho Ota is the doubles partner of Daichi Kiriyama. His small body, combined with his partner's large body, forms the Thunderbolt, where Shou jumps off Daichi's shoulders and returns high shots. Daichi uses a powerful volleyshot, Cannon Volley, which is often the set up for Thunderbolt.

  Rokkaku

• Oji is the coach of the team. He is an elderly man who manufactures creates special wooden rackets for his players, taking into consideration their skills and personality. A running gag in the series is his questionable age. Though he is old and it shows in his speech, he is extremely fast, and can easily defeat his own students in beach volleyball. Nanjirou comments that Oji was already an old man when he was in middle school, and was genuinely surprised to hear that he was still alive.
• Kentaro Aoi is the freshman captain of the team due to his skill. He is cheerful and talkative, having been playing tennis under the guidance of Oji for years. Oji creates a special hexagonal racquet with the strings crossed in hexagons, which allows for better control. The racquet combined with his training regiment allows him to always hit to the same spot on his opponents side regardless of placement, which frustrates his opponents. He also uses his control to hit cord balls at any point. Aoi enjoys playing under pressure, so he frequently loses the first 4–5 games of his matches on purpose, in order to make them more exciting. In the manga, he thrives on setting conditions for himself, such as saying that he will only date ugly girls if he can't make a certain shot. He plays against Kaoru Kaidoh in the manga, but plays against Ryoma Echizen in the anime. He is voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga in Japanese media, played Kazumi Kawahara and Taiki Yoshida in the musicals and by Daiki Sano in the live action film.
• Kojiro Saekiis Rokkaku's stern and confident vice-captain. He is a childhood friend of the Fuji brothers. Saeki excels in doubles with his outstanding game reading capabilities, being able to read where an opponent is going to run or hit the ball by watching the contractions of their muscles prior to their action. He is voiced by Katsuaki Arima in Japanese media, and played by Kanata Irei and Daisuke Utsumi in the musicals.
• Hikaru "Davide" Amane uses a custom racket that is the maximum legal length, which allows him to have a large range and disperse strong shots easily. He's also known for frequently making ridiculous puns that often frustrates the people around him. He is voiced by Kosuke Takeuchi in Japanese media, played by Airu Shiozaki and Atsushi Kimura in the musicals, and by JURI in the live action film.
• Harukaze "Bane" Kurobane is very popular amongst the kids that often stand on Rokkaku's playgrounds. Like Davide, Bane's tennis also uses the opponent's power to generate strong shots of his own; however, Bane focuses on the baseline, whereas Davide plays at the net. He is voiced by Kazehiro Oguro in Japanese media, and played by Gaku Shindo and Shota Motokawa in the musicals.
• Marehiko Itsuki is a very curious player who never stops asking about everything that happens around him, sometimes going to the extreme of chasing a person around if he doesn't satisfy his curiosity. He often deeply breathes through his nose, which seems bull-like. He is skilled in hitting balls without a spin and reaching balls close to the ground, due to his experience with clam digging. Besides practicing for the tennis team, he enjoys spending a majority of his time on the beach. He is voiced by Takehiro Hasu in Japanese media, and is played by Shoma Ikegami and Shinichi Hashimoto in the musicals.
• Ryo Kisarazu is the older twin brother of Atsushi Kisarazu. Mizuki attempts to scout Ryou, but ends up with his brother. He is never seen playing in the manga, and though he is seen playing only once in the anime, the official fanbook notes that he has a special move titled the "Sky High Volley." He is voiced by Hiroki Takahashi in Japanese media, and played by Ryosuke Kato and Daisuke Hirose in the musicals.
• Satoshi Shudo is made fun of for being a minor member of the regulars. He is titled the team's "poison taster" and dreams of tasting America's fabled turkey flavored soda.

  Rikkaidai

• Seiichi Yukimura is the captain of Rikkaidai, and is known as one of the Big Three, who has a strong willpower, stern, brutally honest attitude on court. He is called "The Child of God" due to his strength in the tennis court. He is one of the few who can activate Muga No Kyouchi, but is never seen using it. He can return any kind of shot with little effort, and his invincible appearance induces yips, a temporary mental condition that physically freezes up the sufferer due to a lack of self-confidence or fear of injury. Despite his strength, he has a very frail and feminine appearance, and he is very friendly to others outside of the court. He is hospitalized for much of the series due to some neurological disease resembling Guillain–Barré syndrome, which left him unlikely to ever play tennis again, but undergoes a successful surgery and rehabilitation during the Kanto tournament and was able to participate in the National tournament. In New Prince of Tennis, his yips ability evolves further. He can now induce the illusion of victory in others, which allows him to hit a winning return while the opponent thinks the point is already over. He took the No. 11 position on the U-17 first string with little to no difficulty. He is also one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup, where he experiences yips himself for the first time but subsequently overcomes it. He teamed up with Tokugawa Kazuya for a doubles match with Germany's captiain pro player Jurgen Valicevic Volk and middle schooler Frankensteiner. His skill resonates with Tokugawa and they developed "Sixth Sense" where they can instantaneously predict the path of the ball and return it effectively. They lost when Jurgen Valicevic Volk hit Whirlpool Baptism which forcibly spin's the racket out of the play's grip. He is voiced by Sachiko Nagai in Japanese media, and played by Ren Yagami, Toshiki Masuda, Keisuke Kaminaga, and Toshiki Tateishi in the musicals.
• Genichiro Sanada is the vice captain of Rikkaidai, known as the "Emperor", who fills in for Yukimura in Singles 1 during his hospitalization. The second of Rikkaidai's Three Demons, he comes from a very traditional family, is stern and noble, plays with honor, and expects the best from himself and his teammates. When his teammates don't live up to his expectations, or act in a way that brings shame to their team, Sanada will slap them across the face. Sanada practices kendo and combines it with his tennis techniques. His main rival is Tezuka, who he lost to despite being the runner-up to Yukimura in the Junior tournament, and vows to train and defeat him. He uses a family of techniques called "Wind, Forest, Fire, Shadow, Mountain, Lightning", though he initially seals off Shadow and Lightning to prepare for the match with Tezuka. Wind, based on the drawing of a sword, is a high speed shot nearly invisible to the eye. Forest neutralizes the spin of a ball. Fire is a power shot that can be hit as a smash, forehand, or backhand. Shadow hides his weaknesses and makes him unreadable, particularly against the Saiki Kinpatsu no Kiwami. Mountain was never fully depicted, but Atobe has remarked he was always defeated by it before completing his World of Ice technique, and Sanada uses it to win stamina battles. Lightning allows Sanada to practically teleport to the ball and hit a shot that has so much spin it can burn through racket guts with ease. Beyond all these shots, Sanada can further enhance his play style by using Muga no Kyouchi. In the anime, Sanada possesses two different shots he does not have in the manga, the Invisible Swing and Invisible Serve. These shots involve Sanada moving his racket extremely quickly, and making the exact path of the ball difficult to see with the naked eye. The manga shots replace the Invisible Shot and Serve in the OVA of the Nationals. In New Prince of Tennis, he acquires a new technique called Black Aura which allows him to change the direction of his shots after hitting them. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to be chosen for the Japan U-17 team. For some reason, he now wears a bandaid over his left eye after training in the hidden U-17 camp but the cause of injury was never shown and he has yet to take it off. He is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki in Japanese media, played by Kentarou Kanesaki, Ken Ogasawara, and Shougo Tazuru in the musicals, and by Eiji Moriyama in the live action film.
• Renji Yanagi, known as the Data Master, is the third of the Three Demons of Rikkaidai. Yanagi usually plays in doubles. He is the friend and former doubles partner of Sadaharu Inui, who calls him "Professor." He keeps his eyes perpetually half-closed just as Inui hides his eyes behind his thick glasses. He is Inui's rival in using Data Tennis having taught Inui in the first place, which he himself learned from Akuto. Like Inui, Renji's data tennis focuses on predicting his opponents' movements, but he can also predict their thought patterns and what they'll say next, effectively breaking his opponents' confidence as he knows their next move before even they do. He possesses two special techniques, the Kamaitachi, a high speed slice shot, and the Utsusemi, a slice shot that does not bounce. In New Prince of Tennis, he eventually takes the No. 17 position on the U-17 first string. He joins Inui as part of the All-Japan intel support team. He is voiced by Eiji Takemoto in Japanese media, played by Kento Ono, Yuki Yamaoki, Atomu Mizuishi, and Takuma Isawa in the musicals, and by Mamoru Miyano in the live action film.
• Akaya Kirihara is the youngest and only second year student in the Rikkaidai regulars, thus earning him the title "Second Year Ace". He is known for completing his official matches in under 15 minutes and his high level of concentration, which never seems of waver no matter how long he plays. Originally joining Rikkaidai because he thought he could be "the number one player at the number one school", Sanada eventually crushes him but convinces him to strive to someday defeat the Three Demons. He is quite friendly and talkative, but very violent and arrogant on the court, often causing serious injuries that require hospitalization. He reforms in the anime after being beaten by Fuji, but in the nationals, he returns to his violent playing style, severely injuring Inui. While under high pressure or after sustaining injury, the whites of his eyes turn red, becoming bloodshot, and his power, skill, and speed increase. He becomes much more violent while in this state. Later, he develops a Devil Mode, which turns his skin red and his hair white. His bloodlust and destructive power are greatly enhanced, and he solely focuses on crushing the opposing players using violent means. Kirihara's trademark shot is the Knuckle Serve, a more powerful and extreme version of the Twist Serve, in which the serve can jump in any direction. As a player who can use "Muga no Kyouchi", Kirihara has also used many other shots originally belonging to other players. In New Prince of Tennis, it is revealed that his Devil Mode has life-threatening consequences with continued use, implying that the ability is a form of self-induced vasodilation. With Shiraishi's help, he develops the much safer, equally powerful alternative Angel Mode, and loses his violent tendencies. He becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is voiced by Showtaro Morikubo in Japanese media, played by Genki Okawa, Motohisa Harashima, and Ryuutarou Maeda in the musicals. In the 3rd character popularity poll for the series, Kirihara came in 7th place.
• Hiroshi Yagyu is known as "the Gentleman" for his polite demeanor. In the anime, he uses a Golf Swing shot is an adaptation of a golf swing from his days in the golf club prior to his recruitment to the tennis team. In the manga, his special move is the Laser Beam, an extremely high speed technique that is difficult to return. He and his doubles partner, Niou, pull off a switch where each impersonates the other in appearance, personal, and play style for half the game. He is voiced by Eisuke Tsuda, and played by Toru Baba, Ryosuke Mikata, and Yuuta Oosumi in the musicals.
• Masaharu Nio, known as "the Trickster", is able to completely copy the techniques and play style of other players creating the illusion his opponent is facing another person. It isn't perfect, as there are moves that he cannot copy and he is limited by his own physical abilities. He often copies his doubles partner, Yagyuu, to confuse their opponents. He can predict the moves of his opponents up to ten steps ahead. In New Prince of Tennis, he takes the No. 15 position from the U-17 first string, and later moves up to No. 9/10, and later becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is voiced by Yūki Masuda in Japanese media, and played by Masataka Nakagauchi, Hidetoshi Kubota, and Dai Goto in the musicals.
• Bunta Marui volley specialist and doubles partner with his friend Jackal Kuwahara. Despite not moving much during matches, he has stamina issues, so he overdoses on sugar by always eating cake before matches and chewing gum during matches. Jirou Akutagawa of Hyotei idolizes Marui and bases his style off of Marui's style, following a game they played in the Newcomers Tournament when they were both first years. Marui is a net specialist, and his trademark shots include Tightrope Walking, a shot that rolls along the top of the net before dropping in, Iron Pole Strike, a similar shot which runs to the end and bounces off the iron pole, and Temporal Difference Hell, a smash feint where he catches the ball at a different angle at the last second, returning it in an unpredictable manner. In New Prince of Tennis, he develops a new technique, Perfect Fortress, that allows him to play defense at the net rather than just waiting for an opportunity for offense all the time. He is chosen as one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is voiced by Naozumi Takahashi in Japanese media, and played by Renn Kiriyama, Mio Acaba, Junpei Yasukawa, and Taka Ooyabu in the musicals.
• Jackal Kuwahara is half-Brazilian, known as the "Iron Wall of Defense" and the "Man with Four Lungs" for his incredible stamina, on par with Kaido's. He shaves his head as a tribute to his old coach in Brazil. At the Kanto finals, Jackal is shown to have the arm training Kaidoh has to use the Boomerang Snake. He wears 20 kg arm weights in order to train. Though he follows his team to the U-17 camp in New Prince of Tennis, he feels that he has been superseded by Kite, who takes his place as Marui's partner during the match against the U-17 first string. He is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama in Japanese media, and played by Jutta Yuuki, Shingo Toda, Kouhei Shiota, and Yusaku Kawasaki in the musicals.

  Shitenhoji

• Osamu Watanabe is the coach and adviser, noted by his team for having a very loud voice. He is voiced by Koji Yusa in Japanese media, and is played by Yuki Kimisawa in the musicals.
• Kuranosuke Shiraishi is the captain of Shitenhōji. He is heralded as having "Perfect Tennis", and is referred to as "The Bible of Shitenhōji." Due to Shiraishi's hard work, he masters the basic forms of tennis and gradually obtains the skill where he can perform strokes without mannerisms or habitual actions that can lessen the use of stamina, which has a great effect. Shiraishi himself believes that perfect tennis is silly notion and finds his own style boring, but continues to employ it because of how effective it is for winning. He uses the "Entaku Shot" which uses a massive sidespin to cause the ball to fly in a ring formation until it hits the course without bouncing. He is the first person to ever beat Fuji in an official singles match, as well as defeating all of Fuji's counters. He is voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya in Japanese media, played by Kyousuke Harukawa, Yoshihide Sasaki and Shintaro Anzai in the musicals. He is shown to be wearing a bandage in his left arm. On numerous occasions, he pretends to remove it in order to keep Kintarou in-line, as the latter fears that Shiraishi is hiding a poison arm. In New Prince of Tennis, it is revealed that he actually wears a gold arm guard under the bandages, which acts as his version of the wrist weights many other players use, but heavier. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is a perfectly balanced player having a score of 4.5 to all skill areas: speed, power, stamina, mental and technique. During U-17 match against Greece's captain, he froze and realized the difference in their strength which results to Shuji Tanegashima to play instead of him. With the help of the latter and inspiration from his teammates in Shintenhoji, he redeveloped his style and achieved "Star Bible" where he can instantaneously increase a certain skill area at a time to 7. And when doing so, he can hit his teammate's signature moves such as Hadokyu, Speed Star, and Mountain Storm.
• Kenjiro Koishikawa is the vice-captain, but has almost no role in the story. He was originally intended to play a larger role, but this was cut when Konomi had to move Chitose to Shitenhōji, and the team wound up with an extra player.
• Senri Chitose originally played on the Shishigaku team with his close friend, Kippei Tachibana where the two guided Shishigaku to the National semi-finals in the previous season. This ended after the Nationals when Tachibana injures Chitose's eye during a practice match. They both leave tennis for a time, and Chitose eventually transfers to Shitenhōji, though at a lesser level due to blind spots in injured eye. Chitose and Tachibana eventually get reunited in the National Quarterfinals, where Chitose defeats his old friend in a close match. Although he intended to quit tennis after that match, he gets drawn back in to play Tezuka in the semi-finals, where he loses. Chitose discovers the State of Self Actualization, which allows him to copy techniques of other players perfectly, and through studying, finds the second of the "three doors", the Pinnacle of Great Wisdom. The power is focused on the mind, which allows him some foresight during rallies, giving him the ability to determine the least number of hits possible to win the point. His own original technique is the "Divine Disappearance", which allows him to make the ball appear as if it has disappeared by applying a large amount of topspin. Chitose was originally intended to still be with Shishigaku, but when Takeshi Konomi chose to bring Hyoutei back, he had to cut out Shishigaku's match with Seigaku, so he decided to move Chitose to Shitenhōji. Chitose has a little sister named Miyuki, age 8, who is very close to Tezuka, whom she calls "racket stealer". He is voiced by Jun Osuka in Japanese media, and by Ryuuko Isogai, Masashi Oyama and Keisuke Higashi in the musicals.
• Kenya Oshitari is known as Naniwa's Speed Star for his unparalleled speed that is far superior to even Fudoumine's Kamio Akira. He is Hyoutei's Yuushi Oshitari's cousin. He plays doubles with Hikaru Zaizen and sometimes Ishida Gin, but he selflessly agreed to sit through the Nationals semifinals so that his teammate, Chitose, could play Tezuka in the Doubles match that Kenya should've been in. Zaizen calls him "hetare" sometimes, which refers to how he is clumsy and weak-brained, such as the scene in Another Story OVA where he effortlessly runs past the Seigaku team despite arriving late, and, as he is laughing, crashes into a signpost and trips, falling to the floor. It is revealed in New Prince of Tennis that, despite his amazing speed, his balance is extremely poor, something he would later rectify by training with trip lasers. He later obtains the No. 18 position for the U-17 first string. Kenya is voiced by Jun Fukuyama in Japanese media, and played Takuya Uehara, Kouki Mizuta and Masato Saki in the musicals.
• Hikaru Zaizen is considered to be a genius, though he's never been seen playing a match. He is the doubles partner of Oshitari Kenya. Zaizen is not respectful to his senpai, often calling the Koharu and Yuuji "sick/gross" as well as dissing Chitose after Chitose lost to Tezuka. He called Kawamura "Seigaku's extra baggage" and was reprimanded by Shiraishi. He is voiced by Hirofumi Araki in Japanese media, and by Hisanori Satou, Bishin Kawasumi and Ryuji Satou in the musicals.
• Gin Ishida is a very serious, honorable, and stern player who is the older brother of Fudomine's Tetsu Ishida. Gin is the inventor of the powerful shot, Hadokyu, which is composed of 108 progressively stronger techniques. He can also nullify other's use of Hadokyu. He is the strongest middle school power player in Japan, until he loses his match against Takashi Kawamura in the Nationals after an extremely strong serve. Though incredibly strong already, his strength pales in comparison to the U-17's first string power player. Takeshi Konomi has stated that Gin is his favorite character from Shitenhouji. He is voiced by Masaya Takatsuka, and by Yuusuke Hirose, Yuuta Yoneyama and Keisuke Yamauchi in the musicals.
• Koharu Konjiki and Yuuji Hitōji are two homosexual doubles partners known for their "comedy tennis", which is used to disrupt the synchronization of the other team. Koharu uses data tennis, determining how to counter shots with his IQ of two hundred, allowing him to store a large amount of data without note-taking. Yuuji impersonates other players' voices after studying their behavior. They break up after they lose to Seigaku; while Yuuji is heartbroken and still chases after Koharu, Koharu assumes the typical "girl-bratty" personality, rejecting the boy and even tearing up some of the pictures he had of Yuuji in his bag. Koharu is voiced by Ryo Naitou in Japanese media, and played by Takeya Nishiyama, Manabu Iizumi and Kaita Fukushima in the musicals. Yuuji is voiced by Suguru Kumabuchi in Japanese media, and played by Ryo Hirano, Makoto Uenobori and Taishi Sugie in the musicals.
• Kintaro Toyama is the youngest member of Shitenhoji and the team's strongest player, despite having only played tennis for less than a year to date. He is very carefree and naive, and appears to be an all-brawn-no-brains type of character despite being diminutive in size, often messing up names and sayings. He also has a strong sense of justice, with his motto being "pay back what you receive", which he inherited from a former pro tennis player who had briefly mentored him. He forms a rivalry with Ryoma, though they only get to play a single point. He uses a "Wild" tennis style that takes advantage of his near-limitless natural stamina and strength, being able to lift a scooter over his head and throw it with ease. His signature technique is the "Mountain Storm", during which he spins rapidly in the air, causing a massive amount of wind to stir, and delivers a powerful overhead smash stronger than Gin's strongest Hadokyuu. Chitose finds Kintaro as the player closest to achieving Tenimuhō no Kiwami, but the latter doesn't achieve it until New Prince of Tennis. Kintaro has an extremely active imagination: after reading a manga about monsters with poison claws, he believes Shiraishi has poison claws under the bandages that he always wears around his left hand and arm, which the latter doesn't hesitate to exploit to keep the former well-behaved. Kintarō's knowledge of Japanese is also shown to be weak, and he misreads the Kanji of Ryoma's family name 'Echizen' as 'Koshimae', which becomes a running gag among the other Shitenhoji regulars. In New Prince of Tennis, he achieves the No. 14 position on the U-17 first string. He tries to take the No. 5 position, but loses, despite awakening the Pinnacle of Perfection during the latter match. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is voiced by Yū Sugimoto in Japanese media, played by Yuuya Kido, Takuya Kawaharada and Kodai Matsuoka in the musicals, and by Masato Wada in the live action film.

  Higa

• Harumi Saotome is the coach and encourages on-court violence, especially towards the coach of the other team. When his team is defeated, he attempts to abandon them, but Kite slams a tennis ball in his stomach, and forces him to watch the remaining match. In the anime, he abandons his team when it became clear that Kite would lose to Tezuka.
• Eishiro Kite is the captain, whose nicknames are "Killer" and "the Hitman", as well as receiving a reputation for defeating the aces of many other teams. He has an aggressive play style and can quickly figure out and target the opponent's weaknesses. He scouts various players and teaches them "Shukuchihou", a technique based on martial arts that gives the opponent the impression that the user is able to approach the net or baseline in one step from anywhere on the court. He is the only member that is able to use the "Shukuchihou" in any direction due to his balance. He also teaches them their signature techniques. Kite remains composed and polite in front of other teams, yet extremely condescending towards them, and if physically attacked, won't hesitate to strike back. His tennis style combines the "Shukuchihou" with other techniques such as his powerful "Big Bang" serve, and his "Habu", a shot that curves randomly, making it extremely difficult to return. Kite is one of the middle schoolers invited to the Japanese U17 team in New Prince of Tennis. He plays a doubles match with Bunta against the U-17 first string but ultimately loses. He is voiced by Tarusuke Shingaki in Japanese media, played by Luke.C and Kazumi Doi in the musicals, and by Yuichi Tsuchiya in the live action film.
• Yujiro Kai is the vice-captain who has a tendency to be brash and impulsive despite being the oldest member. Though he acknowledges his opponent's strength during the match, he trash-talks as much as his teammates do upon victory. He normally plays with his right hand, though he switches to his natural left-handed style while using a racket with a reverse grip to use his "Viking Horn" shot, which curves before reaching the opponent's side. he utilizes this attack by waiting for his opponents reaction and at the last second, strikes back to the opposite side of the reaction. He is voiced by Daisuke Nakamura in Japanese media, and played by Hijiri Shinotani and Yoshihiko Aramaki in the musicals.
• Hiroshi Chinen is the tallest player in Higa Chuu, who uses his size and looks to mock and intimidate his opponents. He is voiced by Kazuya Sueyoshi in Japanese media, and played by Takeshi Hayashino and Yu Yoshioka in the musicals.
• Kei Tanishi possesses a large body, which allows him to utilize his "Big Bang" serve that uses his weight and the gravity from falling in order to make a nearly unreternable serve. It takes a lot of stamina, which decreases its power over time, allowing it to be returned, which was taken advantage of by Ryoma. He is one of the former rivals of Ryoma who return to help him regain his memories. He is also well known for being a big eater. In New Prince of Tennis, he is among the 50 middle school players who are invited to the Japanese U-17 team, where he loses a surprising amount of weight during his time training. He is voiced by Youji Ueda in Japanese media, and played by Yutaka Matsuzaki and Yuuki Tomotsune in the musicals.
• Rin Hirakoba is the only member who likes fair play. He uses Habu, which has the stance of a smash, except that it curves wildly and unpredictable while in the air and bouncing, and Giant Habu, which curves immediately after leaving the racket, though it causes his hand to go numb, limiting it to one use per match. Hirakoba is a very formidable player, being able to take out Fuji's triple counter and Takashi's Hadoukyuu. He is one of the few players to stand up to Coach Saotome, refusing an order to attack Seigaku's coach feeling the match was too interesting. He is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino in Japanese media, and played by Yasuka Saito and Toshiyuki Someya in the musicals.
• Tomoya Shiranui and Aragaki Kouichi are doubles partners, who, having grown up playing under an extremely hot sun, have extremely high endurance, which makes up for not being able to use the "Shukuchihou" technique. However, Shiranui's stamina still pales in comparison to Kaidou's.

  American team

• Richard Baker is the American team's extremely strict, often unreasonable, coach, who views tennis merely as a show, and his pupils as the actors and pawns for success. He often expects his players to win or lose based on his idea of entertainment, and has little control over his temper when things don't go his way. He is a shrewd businessman, and is later fired for illegal use of funds on expensive advertising and promotion for his team.
• Kevin Smith is the captain of the team. He wishes to play Ryoma to settle a rival feud between his father, George Smith, and Ryoma's father, Nanjiro Echizen. During the time Nanjiro first met Ryoma's mother, George was an arrogant, but pro tennis player that ran a club Nanjiro frequented. His Spartan training at youth lessons along with his obnoxiousness earned the ire of many, and Nanjiro eventually stepped in to defeat George in a humiliating 6-0 match. George becomes very strict with Kevin's training and eventually turns to alcohol after many years of mulling over his loss to Nanjiro, which causes Kevin to view him as worthless. Kevin largely copies Ryoma's tennis style, but also utilizes a highly destructive style of tennis as a show of power, possibly to reinforce the fact that he refuses to a weakling like his dad was. When he and Ryoma meet up in the United States he shows a more cheerful and gentler side, without losing his competitiveness.
• Arnold Ignashov is an immigrant from East Germany, who becomes disillusioned and turns to life as a street punk. He eventually finds a sports magazine, and becomes involved in tennis. Not wanting to return to his previous lifestyle, he practices and wins every official match until playing Shusuke Fuji. Arnold is called a tennis machine because of his accuracy and the ability to predict and counter his opponent's shots. When he loses to Fuji in a close match, Baker fires him from the team, but is relieved to learn that, especially with Baker getting fired, he will not have to stop playing professional tennis.
• Bobby Max is the tallest and most muscularly developed of his teammates, earning him the nickname, "Beast Bulldozer." Bobby often struggles to control his temper and poor sportsmanship, which have gotten him banned from most sports in his school until being introduced to tennis, where he fares better as he does not come into physical contact with his opponent. Previously, Bobby played basketball and American football. He plays to a stalemate against Sengoku in the Good Will games.
• Tom Griffy is the brother, as well as the doubles partner of Terry Griffy is the sister. They were raised by their aunt following the death of their parents. They support themselves and their aunt by collecting items from the garbage and performing tennis tricks. Baker discovers them and "rescues" them from their aunt, which leaves them deeply indebted. The two utilize a special type of shot which Tom hits a shot at the back of Terry's head, and the latter dodges at the last second, allowing the shot to approach the opponent from a blind spot and thus difficult to return. They're the only ones to win their match during the Good Will games, having won against Kikumaru and Oshitari Yuushi.
• Billy Cassidy is a boy who moves to Los Angeles after being on a ranch most of his life. He begins to play tennis to become a person worthy of attention of Stephanie, the daughter of one of Baker's sponsors. Though he loses his Good Will match, Stephanie acknowledges him and wishes to learn tennis from him, leaving the latter overjoyed. He's seldom seen without a cowboy hat, and his ranch upbringing influences his tennis, as one of his shots is thrown at his opponents like a lasso.
• Michael Lee is the only son of a successful Chinese businessman, and is a United States immigrant. His father's personal philosophies of hard work and success shape Michael's personality and tennis play. He has also practiced kung fu for many years, enhancing his speed and reflexes when playing tennis, on par with Sanada's.

  High School Team

• Juujirou Oni

• Kazuya Tokugawa

• Duke Watanabe

• Houou Byoudouin

• Shuuji Tanegashima

• Kanata Irie

• Ikuto Kimijima

• Atsukyou Tohno

• Akuto Mitsuya

• Ryoga Echizen

• Tsukimitsu Ochi

• Jusborou Mouri

• Yūdai Yamato

Foreign Teams

German Team

• Jurgen Valicevic Volk

• Q.P.

Swiss Team

French Team

• Leopold Camus

Spanish Team

American Team

• Ralph Reinhardt

• Dudu Obandu

• Kiko Valentine

• Oliver Philips

English Team

Greek Team

• Heracles Thalatta

• Evangelos Papadopoulos

• Zeus Iliopoulos

• Hermes Kounellis

• Vulcan Lartius

• Apollon and Orion Stephanopoulos

Australian Team

Tube Republic Team

• M. Nobtail

Others

• Nanjiro Echizen is the father of Ryoma. Nanjiro is very outspoken, eccentric, a shameless flirt, brash, perverted, and almost childish at times. He is known as "Samurai Nanjiro" for his invincible tennis skills during his earlier years as a professional tennis player. Other than Ryoma, he is the only player to have reached the "Pinnacle of Perfection". He was trained by Ryuzaki during middle school and eventually became a professional after leaving Japan. He remains undefeated and was only one opponent away to earning a Grand Slam title before he unexpectedly decided to retire in order to teach Ryoma tennis. In the animated movie Tennis no Ōjisama - Futari no Samurai, it was revealed that he had briefly taken in a child named Ryoga Echizen. In addition to being one of the few players to ever achieve the "Pinnacle of Perfection", Nanjiro sports a tennis style that uses the "Nitoryuu" position of playing ambidextrously, and he uses Samurai Zone to cause all of his opponents shots to return straight to him. He is played by Yukio Ueshima in the first musical, Shinnosuke Motoyama in the second season, and Goro Kishitani in the live action film.
• Sakuno Ryuzaki is the granddaughter of Sumire. She is a kind, introverted girl with very long hair kept in twin French braids, and often worries about Ryoma and the others. She starts playing tennis after watching Ryoma and helps support the Seigaku team. Sakuno is attracted towards Ryoma and has feelings for him, but she has trouble opening up to him due to her own shy nature, a degree of bad luck, Ryoma's density and the meddling of the other Seigaku regulars, namely Momoshiro and Eiji. Out of all the girls in the story, she is the only one whom Ryoma shows his kinder side, implying that Ryoma may actually have feelings for her. A running gag in the series is that she often gives wrong directions to others.
• Tomoka Osakada is Sakuno's best friend and classmate; she supports Ryoma along with Sakuno at the team's matches. Tomoka is very attracted to Ryoma, and she is very open about this compared to Sakuno as the former is very confident and brash, making her a clear extrovert contrasting Sakuno's introversion. Despite her obvious crush on Ryoma, she has no qualms with Sakuno having feelings for him, though she does become extremely passive-aggressive when other girls approach him. She also can be seen arguing with Horio at times and also has several younger siblings, which causes her to miss some of Ryoma's matches through baby-sitting.
• Satoshi Horio is a first year student, who claims to know everything about tennis. He constantly brags about his "two years of tennis experience" when he is, in fact, a subpar player. He serves as a gateway character, often explaining or trying to explain tennis terms, rules, and techniques to the other characters. He has an older cousin named Junpei, who has "two years of biking experience" and helps Kintarō Tooyama from Shitenhōji to reach Tokyo. He is portrayed by Yusuke Ishibashi, Masaki Hara, Ryo Yamada, and Shun Maruyama in the musicals.
• Kachiro Kato hangs around a lot with Satoshi Horio and Katsuo Mizuno. Although he is not very good at tennis, he thoroughly supports the team. He has a father who coaches at an expensive tennis club. Though he is normally polite and meek, Kachiro believes strongly in justice and fights to the end to defend his beliefs. He is portrayed by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Yuya Mori, Ryou Kawamoto, Tsubasa Itou and Hiroki Hirai in the musicals.
• Katsuo Mizuno is the third of the "freshman three." He bears a strong resemblance to Oishi, which is used to stall for time while Oishi is not present. He is portrayed by Masaru Hotta, Yuki Okamoto, Kouichi Eguchi, Masashi Watanabe and Rie Takahashi in the musicals.
• Masashi Arai is a second year student and the best reserve player on the team, who is the closest to becoming a regular, almost getting a shot to play in Kantō Tournament finals in the anime when Momoshiro and Kaido were nowhere to be seen. He is known for his hotheadedness and hazing of weaker players, which stem from his hidden, but inflated, ego. He is as hard on himself as he is on the others during training. Although he had a very bitter relationship with Ryoma at first, but eventually learns to respect him. He takes charge of the tennis club when the regulars and the coach are away. However, his ego balloons during this time as no one is around to keep his attitude in check. He often hangs around Masaya Ikeda and Daisuke Hayashi. He is portrayed by Jiro Morikawa in the musicals.
• Mamoru Inoue is a journalist for the Monthly Tennis magazine. Inoue takes a special interest in the progress of Seigaku, especially Ryoma after observing his skill for the first time. He is also an amateur tennis player, as well as being a big fan of Nanjiro Echizen.
• Saori Shiba is the new photographer for the Monthly Tennis Pro magazine. Along with Inoue, she takes a special interest in Seigaku. Unlike her more professional co-worker, she often lets her emotions get in the way of her job, and is sometimes depicted as a klutz.
• Nanako Meino is Ryoma's cousin; she is a student at a local Tokyo college, who currently lives with her relatives, the Echizen family. She plays the role of an elder sibling figure to Ryoma, who is an only child and helps him and the other Echizens with their daily lives. She is sweet-tempered, very polite, loyal, and devoted. In the one-off story "The Prince of Tennis", she was "Nanako Ryuzaki", who is given tennis tips by Ryoma and later hit on by club coach Sasabe, whom Ryoma humiliates in retaliation for his dirty playing.
• Rinko Echizen is Ryoma's mother and Nanjiro's wife. Her maiden name is Rinko Takeuchi. She is sweet and compliant, but quite strong-willed as well. She works as an attorney, which has been her long-time dream. She met Nanjiro in America while playing tennis. When she got hurt from saving a boy from an abusive tennis coach, Nanjiro avenged her by completely humiliating the coach in a match.
• Sasabe is a local bully, who occasionally encounters Ryoma and his friends. He is first introduced when he boasts about his knowledge of the different types of tennis grip, which is when Ryoma corrects his knowledge. He is also the first person in the series to play a match against Ryoma, whom he loses to. His father, who has an attitude similar to his son, also encounters Ryoma and his friends on a few occasions. In the one-off story "The Prince of Tennis", he is the coach at a tennis club who tries to hit on "Nanako Ryuzaki" and is humiliated by Ryoma in retaliation for his dirty playing. He is portrayed by Katsuo in the first musical.
• is Senri's eight-year-old little sister and the one who helped Tezuka make it in time for the nationals after he injuries his shoulder after a match with Keigo Atobe in the first round of the Kanto Tournament and has no choice to go to Kyushu for rehabilitation. They meet after Tezuka accidentally started using her racket to practice hitting in his training. Since then, Miyuki started calling him "Racket Thief" or "Mister Thief". She became his little coach and after her Yips kicked in during a match, Tezuka told her how the only way to get over it is to train and build confidence. A tennis team then walked in and told Tezuka about how Seishun won the Kanto Tournament without him. Tezuka then starting playing tennis with one of the team members, but lost because he now has a fear of lifting his shoulder. Miyuki then decided to play against the team. Amazingly, she does not give up, and her Yips do not occur. This made Tezuka see that the reason he cannot lift his arm is because of what happened, so after Miyuki trips he hits the ball back and takes her place. Tezuka wins against the team, and Senri checks up on him during the matches. Tezuka realizes he can make it back in time. A few days later, Miyuki was able to become champion of a tennis tournament and went to show her new medal to Tezuka, but he had already left. Miyuki reappears in "Another Story" after seeing Tezuka in a book store.
• Liliadent Krauser''' is one of the seven foreign students gathered for the national conventions. He appears only in the OVAs Unlike his teammates, he had decided to stay in Japan in order to continue challenging the players that had defeated him at the National tournament semifinals, and joins the other middle schoolers at the All-Japan U-17 camp. His tennis style is "Dismissal by Crucifixion" where, after some set-up "hopping ball" shots, he hits a single powerful shot "Southern Cross" that vibrates in the shape of a cross and nails the opponent to the back wall or fence, forcing his opponents to retire. He's noted to have below average stamina because of his play style.

  Reception

Merchandise