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.

Biography

Kato was based in Switzerland from an early age. During his junior career he was friends with

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 ...

and partnered with him in several doubles tournaments. He beat Federer in a national under-12s final. Turning professional in 1998, Kato made his first appearance in an ATP Tour tournament that year, the doubles at the Swiss Open Gstaad with

Marco Chiudinelli Marco Chiudinelli (born 10 September 1981) is a retired tennis player from Switzerland. A member of Switzerland's winning 2014 Davis Cup squad, he reached his highest singles ranking of 52 in February 2010 during a career that was often hindere ...

. He was twice given a wildcard entry into the men's doubles draw at the Japan Open, the first in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, when partnered with

Gouichi Motomura (born 25 December 1973) is a retired Challenger tour and Japan Davis Cup team tennis player. Over a 16-year period, Motomura captured four Challenger titles, all in doubles, and is tied for the most Davis Cup ties played by a Japanese player ...

to reach the quarter-finals. On the other occasion, in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, he and

Satoshi Iwabuchi is a retired professional tennis player from Japan. Iwabuchi won one ATP Tour doubles title in his career, the 2005 Japan Open, where he and Takao Suzuki defeated Simon Aspelin Simon Aspelin (; born 11 May 1974) is a former professional ...

upset the top seeded pairing of Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley in the first round, en route to the semi-finals. In 2003 he won two Challenger doubles titles, on hard courts in Togliatti and

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

. Kato represented the

Japan Davis Cup team The Japan men's national tennis team represents Japan in Davis Cup tennis competition and is governed by the Japan Tennis Association. Japan first competed at the Davis Cup in 1921, where they finished as runners-up. They were an inaugural me ...

in 2003, for a tie against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in New Delhi. He played the doubles rubber with

Thomas Shimada Thomas Shimada (born February 10, 1975 in Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List ...

, which they lost to

Mahesh Bhupathi Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a major tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles, he ...

and

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

. In the reverse singles he was beaten by

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His tennis singles, singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. He has been a member ...

. He featured in the main draw of the men's doubles at the

2004 French Open The 2004 French Open was the 108th edition of the tournament. Gastón Gaudio became the first men's Open Era Grand Slam title winner to save two match points in the final; the last time that had happened was 70 years earlier. Gaudio also became th ...

, with Stephen Huss, for a first round exit, to Russians

Igor Andreev Igor Valeryevich Andreev (russian: link=no, И́горь Вале́рьевич Андре́ев, BGN/PCGN: ''Andreyev'', ISO 9: ''Andreev'', ; born 14 July 1983) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He won three ATP Tour singles ti ...

and

Nikolay Davydenko Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kato, Jun 1980 births Living people Japanese male tennis players Sportspeople from Yokohama Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland

Biography

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

See also

References

External links