is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Biography

Early life

Inoue was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on 7 June 1977. A right-handed baseline player, she started tennis aged nine and was coached by her father Gou. Her younger sisters, Maiko and Akari, also played on the professional tennis circuit. She had her best year as a junior in 1995 when she was a girls' singles quarter-finalist at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

and semi-finalist at the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

Professional career

In 1996 she graduated from high school and began competing on the professional tour. Her earliest success on the WTA Tour came at the Wismilak International in Surabaya, where he made the quarter-finals in both 1996 and 1997. She qualified for her first

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament at the 1997 Wimbledon Championships and was beaten by seventh seed

Anke Huber Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired top-five professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open – Women's singles, 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Tour Championships, 1995 W ...

in the first round. In the 1998 season she reached her highest ranking of 108 in the world. Her highlights in 1998 include reaching the quarter-finals of the ENKA Open in Istanbul as well as main draw appearances in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. At Wimbledon she was one of only three players to take a set off Nathalie Tauziat on the Frenchwoman's run to the final. She never represented Japan at Fed Cup level but was a member of the bronze medal winning women's team at the 1998 Asian Games.

ITF finals

Singles (2–4)

Doubles (1-4)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inoue, Haruka 1977 births Living people Japanese female tennis players Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in tennis Sportspeople from Tokyo Tennis players at the 1998 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games 20th-century Japanese women 21st-century Japanese women