Toshiaki Sakai (born 9 April 1974) is a Japanese 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. A left-handed player from

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 ...

, Sakai made his only

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

main draw appearances at the 1995 Japan Open, but didn't begin competing professionally until 2002. Sakai, who is the son of Universiade champion

Toshiro Sakai is a former tennis player from Japan. Career Sakai, a student of Waseda University, competed in the 1970 Summer Universiade, which was held in Turin, Italy. He and Jun Kamiwazumi won the doubles gold medal for Japan. When the Japanese Davis C ...

, was a student at

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

and represented Japan at the

1995 Summer Universiade The 1995 Summer Universiade, also known as the XVIII Summer Universiade, took place in Fukuoka, Japan. Emblem The symbol mark is a motif of "U", expressing passion and energy in the flickering flames of a burning torch. In the flames one sees bot ...

. He won the All Japan Student Tennis Championships singles title in 1996. On the professional tour, Sakai reached a best singles ranking of 468 in the world and featured in the qualifying draw for the

2003 Australian Open The 2003 Australian Open was a tennis tournament held in 2003. It was the first Grand Slam event of the 2003 ATP Tour and the 2003 WTA Tour. It was the 91st edition of the event and attracted 512,225 spectators. Thomas Johansson could not defend ...

. He had a best doubles world ranking of 517.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Toshiaki 1974 births Living people Japanese male tennis players Competitors at the 1995 Summer Universiade Sportspeople from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese people