is a 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 and a former Japanese No. 1.

Tennis career

Suzuki reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 102 in 1998 and has earned nearly three quarters of a million dollars in prize winnings on the ATP Tour. He is well known for his outstanding performances against

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

at the Australian Open in 2005 and the 2006 Tokyo Open. In 2006, Suzuki injured his shoulder 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 ...

qualifying tournament in a match against

Paul Capdeville Paul Gerard Capdeville Castro (; born 2 April 1983) is a Chilean former tennis player. He was born in Santiago. Tennis career In May 2009, he achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 76. At the 2006 French Open, Capdeville had a s ...

and sat out most of the season as a result. He briefly returned to competitive tennis in May in a challenger tournament in South Korea and lost in the quarter finals. In October 2006, Suzuki played in his first International Series event of the year, the

Japan Open Tennis Championships The Japan Open (currently sponsored by Rakuten) is a men's tennis tournament held in Ariake Tennis Forest Park with its center court Ariake Coliseum, located in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally founded in 1915 as the Japan International Ch ...

held 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 ...

, having received a wildcard into the main draw. Suzuki, ranked World No. 1078 at the time, won surprise victories over 8th seed

Paradorn Srichaphan Paradorn Srichaphan ( th, ภราดร ศรีชาพันธุ์; ; ; born 14 June 1979) is a retired professional tennis player from Thailand. He was the first men's singles player from Asia to be ranked in the top 10 of the ATP rank ...

and World No. 126

Alexander Waske Alexander Waske (born 31 March 1975) is a retired tennis player from Germany. Waske was ranked as high as world No. 16 in doubles, winning four titles. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 89 in June 2006. In 2010, Waske a ...

en route to his quarter finals berth against Federer. Suzuki once again lost to Federer in three sets, 6–4, 5–7, 6–7⁽³⁾.Mulligan, James (2006)
"Suzuki puts scare in Federer"
''The Japan Times Online'', 7 October 2006.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Performance timelines

Singles

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 22 (17–5)

Doubles: 24 (18–6)

References

External links

* * *
Takao Suzuki Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Takao 1976 births Living people Japanese male tennis players Sportspeople from Sapporo Sportspeople from Tokyo Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in tennis Hopman Cup competitors Tennis players at the 2002 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Olympic tennis players of Japan 20th-century Japanese people 21st-century Japanese people