Kurumi Nara

This article incorporates material from the article 奈良くるみ (Nara Kurumi) in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on August 29, 2013.

Kurumi Nara
奈良くるみ

Country (sports)	Japan
Residence	Kawanishi, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Born	(1991-12-30) 30 December 1991 Minoh, Osaka, Japan
Height	1.58 m (5 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	April 2009
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$500,762
Singles
Career record	168–114
Career titles	1 WTA, 4 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 62 (17 February 2014)
Current ranking	No. 62 (17 February 2014)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2014)
French Open	1R (2010)
Wimbledon	2R (2010)
US Open	3R (2013)
Doubles
Career record	32–33
Career titles	0 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 237 (12 April 2010)
Current ranking	No. 471 (10 February 2014)
Last updated on: 10 February 2014.

Kurumi Nara (Template:Lang-ja, born 30 December 1991 in Minoh, Osaka, Japan) is a professional tennis player, primarily in singles. She is a right-handed baseliner and uses a two-handed backhand stroke, considered her strongest. After a very successful junior career, Nara has struggled to earn a place in the upper echelons of women's tennis after turning pro in 2009, but her career took a step up in 2013 with a best-ever performance at the US Open.

Junior career

Nara began playing tennis at the age of 3. At the Esaka Tennis Center in Osaka, the budding pro player studied tennis under the tutelage of Japanese tennis luminaries Masaru Suishu and Hiroko Mochizuki. She won recognition from an early age as a tennis prodigy. In 2002, while enrolled in Kawanishi Makinodai Elementary School, Nara took second place in the All Japan Primary School Tennis Championships at the age of 10. She would go on to win that tournament in 2003.

In 2004, after entering the middle school associated with Osaka Sangyo University, Nara won the girls' singles title in the All Japan Middle School Tennis Championship. 2006 marked her debut, via sponsor recommendation, in the All Japan Tennis Championships women's singles draw; however, a first-round loss abruptly ended her tournament run. As a freshman at Osaka Sangyo's high school in 2007, Nara won the under-18 singles title at the All Japan Junior Tennis Championships.

In addition to her participation in the major events for her age group, Nara also accumulated victories each year in junior tournaments throughout Japan. She enjoyed success in doubles on the ITF Junior Circuit with partner Misaki Doi, earning entrance to the girls' doubles draw at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships. They placed second overall, becoming only the second Japanese women's doubles pair to reach the finals of a Grand Slam juniors event since Yuka Yoshida and Hiroko Mochizuki at the 1993 US Open. The Nara–Doi team went on to reach the junior doubles semifinals at the 2007 US Open and Wimbledon 2008, in addition to strong performances at smaller tournaments.

Nara also enjoyed success in singles. In 2007, she became the first Japanese woman to win the Osaka Mayor's Cup since Ryōko Fuda in 2002. Also that year, she made her second appearance, again by sponsor recommendation, in the All Japan Tennis Championships. In the second round, she defeated defending champion and 5th seed Erika Takao in straight sets, in the third round, she toppled 11th seed Tomoko Yonemura in three sets, and in the quarterfinals she lost to Junri Namigata. Nara teamed again with Misaki Doi in doubles, reaching the second round in her tournament doubles debut. The next year, Nara partnered with Kimiko Date-Krumm to win the Kangaroo Cup in Gifu and the title in the open tournament at Hamanako. Nara reached the third round of the 2008 US Open Girls' Singles tournament, where she lost to Kristina Mladenovic.

Professional career

2009–10

Nara turned pro in April 2009, winning the All Japan Tennis Championships that same year. She advanced to the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the 2010 French Open with a 4–6, 7–6, 10–8 win over Monica Niculescu in the qualifiers. At four hours and 42 minutes, it was said to be the longest women's Grand Slam qualifier or main draw match in history. She would go on to lose her first round match to Arantxa Parra Santonja. She also qualified for Wimbledon, and won her first Grand Slam main draw singles match in two sets over Mariana Duque Marino. She fell to Li Na in the second round.

2011

Nara failed to gain entrance to the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2011, falling in the qualifiers each time. July marked Nara's first appearance representing Japan in Fed Cup competition; she notched a win in doubles with partner Rika Fujiwara in the playoffs against Argentina.

2012

Although she was again unable to pass the qualifying rounds of the year's Grand Slam events, Nara bested Polona Hercog and Eleni Daniilidou to qualify for the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She was defeated in the first round by Urszula Radwanska.

2013

Nara won three qualifying matches to enter the main draw of the 2013 US Open, winning her first-round match against Romanian Alexandra Cadanțu. She advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time with a straight set upset victory over 19th-seeded Sorana Cîrstea, also of Romania. She lost to Jelena Jankovic in the third round. After four early exits in Tashkent, Guangzhou, Tokyo and Beijing Nara regained some form in her home city at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. Nara would make it to the semi-finals of the tournament but was ousted by Eugenie Bouchard, losing in straight sets.

2014

Played in the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. Lost to the second seed Ana Ivanovic (#16) in the quarterfinal round in straight sets. Played in the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia. Lost to the 8th seeded Jelena Janković (#8) in the third round in straight sets, 4–6, 5–7. Playing in the Fed Cup for Japan with Misaki Doi, Risa Ozaki and Shuko Aoyama against Argentina in the World Group II first round in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lost the opening singles match to María Irigoyen in three sets. Lost the opening match of the reverse singles to Paula Ormaechea in straight sets allowing Argentina to clinched a berth in World Group Playoffs while Japan drops to the World Group II Playoffs. Playing in the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the fifth seed playing in her first WTA final against top seeded Klara Zakopalova (#34).

• 2014 Singles record 8-2

• Future tournaments:
  • The Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Mexico during the week of February 24.
  • The Indian Wells Masters in Indian Wells, California during the week of March 5.
  • The Sony Open Tennis in Key Biscayne, Florida during the week of March 18.

Personal

According to her JTA and ITF profiles, Nara is coached by Takahiro Terachi. She uses a Srixon racquet and Dunlop Sport shoes, and prefers to play on hard courts. Her most admired player is Justine Henin. In her free time, Nara enjoys reading books, listening to music, and attending motorcycle races.

Play Style

Kurumi Nara rarely wins points outright. Instead, she plays a patient game and tends to edge into the points, gradually increasing the angle and/or power of her shots and prefers a punishing forehand or volley to close the point out. Her patience is also reflected in her serve which (especially for her size) has quite a high ball toss. Her serve lacks the punch of players such as Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova but instead her focus is put into her placement and spin of her serves. Her short statue has definitely shaped her play style which -while aggressive- does not emphasise power but more swinging the momentum in her favour and finishing the point off. Her strong forehand is her main weapon which she likes to dominate rallies with. It is quite common when she is controlling the rally, to slowly come closer into the court. This creates less time between shots and forces the opponent into making mistakes or weaker shots which she usually pounces on with a finishing volley if she gets close enough.

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 (1-0)

Winner – Legend (pre/post 2010)
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	23 January 2014	Rio Open, Rio de Janiero, Brazil	Clay	Klára Zakopalová	6-1, 4-6, 6-1

ITF Circuit finals

Singles 9 (4–5)

$100,000 tournaments

$75,000 tournaments

$50,000 tournaments

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	26 October 2008	Hamanako, Japan	Carpet	Chinami Ogi	6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	2.	7 June 2009	Komoro, Japan	Clay	Yurika Sema	3–6, 6–1, 4–6
Winner	3.	2 August 2009	Obihiro, Japan	Carpet	Junri Namigata	7–6(9–7), 4–6, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	6 September 2009	Tsukuba, Japan	Hard	Suchanun Viratprasert	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	5.	21 February 2010	Surprise, Arizona, USA	Hard	Abigail Spears	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	6.	11 July 2010	Grapevine, Texas, USA	Hard	Jamie Hampton	3–6, 4–6
Winner	7.	25 July 2010	Lexington, Kentucky, USA	Hard	Stéphanie Dubois	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	8.	1 August 2011	Beijing, China	Hard	Su-Wei Hsieh	2–6, 2–6
Winner	9.	31 October 2011	Grapevine, Texas, USA	Hard	Sesil Karatantcheva	1–6, 6–0, 6–3

Doubles 5 (3–2)

$100,000 tournaments

$75,000 tournaments

$50,000 tournaments

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
Winner	1.	4 May 2008	Gifu, Japan	Carpet	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Melanie South Nicole Thijssen	6–1, 6–7(8–10), [10–7]
Winner	2.	20 July 2008	Miyazaki, Japan	Carpet	Misaki Doi	Kimiko Date-Krumm Tomoko Yonemura	4–6, 6–3, [10–7]
Runner-up	3.	3 May 2009	Gifu, Japan	Carpet	Misaki Doi	Sophie Ferguson Aiko Nakamura	2–6, 1–6
Runner-up	4.	2 August 2009	Obihiro, Japan	Carpet	Rika Fujiwara	Natsumi Hamamura Ayumi Oka	6–3, 1–6, [5–10]
Winner	5.	26 September 2009	Makinohara, Japan	Carpet	Erika Sema	Mari Tanaka Tomoko Yonemura	6–0, 6–0
Runner–up	6.	18 May 2013	Saint-Gaudens, France	Clay	Stéphanie Dubois	Julia Glushko Paula Ormaechea	5–7, 6–7(11–13)

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	Career win-loss
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	2Q	3Q	3Q	2Q	3R	2–1
French Open	1R	2Q	1Q	2Q		0–1
Wimbledon	2R	2Q	1Q	3Q		1–1
US Open	A	2Q	2Q	3R		2–1
Win-Loss	1–2	0–0	0–0	2–1	2–1	5–4

External links

• Template:ITF junior profile
• Kurumi Nara at the Women's Tennis Association
• Kurumi Nara at the Billie Jean King Cup