Misaki Doi and Nao Hibino are officially the two selected names to compete for Japan in the women’s singles tournament at 2016 Summer Olympics, held in Rio De Janeiro starting from August 8th. Misaki Doi had been added to the entry list benefitting her ranking of 49th in the world. Nao Hibino, currently ranked 70th, has received a wild card from the ITF to enter the competition.

Japan at the Summer Olympics

Japan will return to women’s singles competition after its absence at 2012 Summer Olympics, held on the grass of All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon. For both Doi and Hibino, respectively 25 and 21 years old, it will be a debut on the Olympic field.

The best results obtained by Japan in women's singles is the quarterfinals, achieved twice in recent years. Ai Sugiyama reached the last eight in 2004, defeated by Australia’s Alicia Molik. Kimiko Date (now Date-Krumm) had previously recorded the same result in 1996, almost reaching the semifinal with a close 10-8 loss to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the third set.

Kimiko-Date Krumm is among the names excluded from this year's competition, for both a reason of ranking (she is currently 234th in the world) and a knee injury, which has been keeping the veteran player away from the courts since this year’s Australian Open.

Other top-100 names excluded from the tournament are the former Japanese number one Kurumi Nara, currently 94th, and teen rising star Naomi Osaka, 91st in the world, who has yet to make her debut in Fed Cup and therefore is ineligible for the Olympics regardless.

Misaki Doi in action during her fourth round match against Angelique Kerber at the Wimbledon Championships (Photo credit: Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
 

Misaki Doi “looking forward” to Rio Olympics contest

Misaki Doi is the only Japanese player in the women's singles field who will reach the Olympics thanks to her ranking. Currently ranked 49th in the world, she will be 37th starting next week, thanks to her run to the last 16 in Wimbledon; for Doi it will be her WTA best ranking.

She became the Japanese number one for the second time in February, following her run at Taiwan Open. In Kaohsiung, she reached the final competing as the second seed, losing only to first seed Venus Williams in straight sets.

She had previously debuted as Japanese number one in October 2015, after winning her maiden WTA title at Luxembourg Open, defeating Andrea Petkovic and Jelena Jankovic on her road to the final, where she battled from a set back to claim the title against Mona Barthel.

She has started her 2016 season struggling with three straight first round losses, the most memorable one at the Australian Open, when she wasted a match point before being defeated by eventual champion Angelique Kerber in three sets.

After reaching the final in Kaoshiung, she repeated the pattern, losing three more matches in the opening round before winning the title at San Antonio Open, a tournament of the WTA 125k series.

After a struggling debut on clay, she showed a remarkable run in Rome, where she reached the quarterfinals getting rid of Alizé Cornet, Lucie Safarova, and Johanna Konta back-to-back, before surrendering to Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.

Two good runs in Eastbourne and Wimbledon, finishing in the last 16 in both competitions, closed her grass-court season, opening her way to a new successful campaign into the upcoming hard-court swing, leading to the U.S. Open.

“I’ll just go back to Japan and then relax there a little bit. Then I go to the United States, Stanford and Montreal and I’m going to play in the Rio Olympics”, Doi told AFP. She talked about the Olympics as a “very big priority”. “For an athlete, it’s big, like a dream”, she added. “I’m very much looking forward to playing there”.

She will also compete in the doubles tournament, partnering Eri Hozumi.

Nao Hibino in action during her first round match at 2016 Miami Open  (Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) 
 

Nao Hibino looking for a remarkable debut at Rio Olympics

As well as Doi did, Hibino marked her debut as Japanese number one in 2015, following her maiden WTA title at Tashkent Open in September. She won the title only two weeks after her WTA main draw debut in singles, at the 2015 Tokyo International, where she also won her first match at a WTA level against Hiroko Kuwata. Hibino had attended almost only ITF tournaments in her previous career, with few appearances into WTA qualifying draws.

She then reached the semifinals at the 125k series event in Hua Hin, and ended runner-up in an ITF 100k event, to close her 2015 as 66th in the world.

In 2016, she benefitted of a direct main draw entry in all three Grand Slam tournaments, despite always suffering a first-round loss from Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, and Andrea Petkovic respectively.

Throughout the season, she reached two quarterfinals - in Auckland, which granted her a temporary return as Japan’s number one - and in Istanbul, as well as a semifinal at the 125k event in Bol. Differently from last year’s, she had focused on playing only WTA level events, but without managing to earn any wins against higher-ranked players.

Currently 70th in the world, Hibino will attend the Summer Olympics after receiving a wild card from the ITF. She will then have the chance to improve this year’s record by searching the first important win of her season.

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