player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameTatsuyoshi (Ryuki)
LastnameMiki
GenderMale
CountryJapan
Date of birth1904-02-11
Place of birthTakamatsu, Japan
Date of death1967-01-09
Place of deathTokyo, Japan

About

During his studies at the Kobe Higher Commercial School, Miki was a member of the collegiate tennis team. Miki was a fine person and he was approached by Ataka Tomiko, daughter of the owner of the trading company, Ataka and Company, to be her tennis coach. Miki became an employee at Ataka and Company and in the late 1920s, Tomiko's older brother, Ataka Eiichi heir to the company, moved to London with his wife to pursue his piano studies and Miki was sent along to join him. Officially his assignment was to assist the local company representative Kyutaro Izaki, but in fact he was supposed to be a companion and personal assistant to Eiichi Ataka, the heir of the company and talented artist who was taking piano lessons in London, as well as his wife Michiko, another classmate of his. He accompanied him on shopping expeditions and was generally a companion to him. While in London, Miki frequently played in amateur tennis tournaments. At Wimbledon Championships he played six times in a row, from 1929 to 1934, and four times (1930—1933) ascended there to the third round in singles competition. He also reached quarter-finals twice in 1932 and 1934. In 1932 he and another Japanese player Jiro Sato defeated in the third round second seeded Australians Jack Crawford and Harry Hopman, and in 1934 Miki, pairing with South African Vernon Kirby eliminated in the second round Crawford and Adrian Quist who were fourth-seeded at the time.But Miki's main success was achieved in mixed doubles. With the Briton Dorothy Round whom he was coaching and partnering since 1931 Miki first reached Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1933, and the next year they won the mixed doubles tournament, making Ryuki the first Japanese player in history to win a Grand Slam event.
At lesser British tournaments, with not so many strong opponents, Miki was a frequent singles finalist. Among others he won tournaments in Croydon and Eastbourne (1930), Birmingham (1931), Edgbaston (1933) and Melbury (1934). The Weybridge championships in St Georges Hill Miki won three times, in 1929, 1930 and 1933, also winning twice (in 1931 and 1934) the Sheffield and Hallamshire Championships.In addition to tournaments on the British soil Ryuki Miki also took part in other competitions in Europe. He played three times at the French Championships, reaching third round in 1933. In 1932 he played for the Japan Davis Cup team in the European zone and won all three his rubbers partnering Jiro Sato, including European semi-final tie in Italy; the Italians eventually won the match 3:2.
In February 1934, Tatsuyoshi Miki was appointed the non-playing captain of the Japan Davis Cup team but the death of the team leader Sato left the Japanese without any chances in their first round European tie against the Australians which ended with a bitter 4:1 loss. Ryuki Miki himself retired from tennis after 1934, and died in Tokyo.

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