Yoshihito Nishioka is a Japanese professional tennis player who was born on September 27, 1995, in Tsu, Japan. After first picking up a racquet aged just 4 with his father and tennis coach Norio, he was destined for a professional career.
Promising much as a junior, he soon entered the world of tournaments around the globe on the junior tour. He most notably reached the US Open Boys’ semifinal in 2012, which was his best result at the junior Grand Slam level.
With the first few years of his career amongst the men spent on the Challenger at ITF tours, his main draw ATP debut came in 2014. It, in fact, came at that season’s edition of the US Open, with the Japanese man battling through three rounds of qualifying to reach the first-round of the main draw and give himself his debut on the main tour as well as his Grand Slam debut.
Throughout the coming years, he managed to get more credibility for his game by chipping away at full-fledged ATP events, gradually going deeper in tournaments, and therefore dragging himself up the rankings.
After a nasty knee injury in 2017, Nishioka came back to the top level the following year, ready and raring for progress. After making good use of his protected ranking, he returned with a bang and, not long after coming back, won his maiden ATP trophy at the Shenzhen Open, defeating Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the final.
Towards this point in his career, the man from Japan was really starting to find some promising consistency in results, most importantly at the majors. This progress continued into the early 2020s, with him winning another ATP title in the form of the 2022 Korea Open, beating Denis Shapovalov in the final.
This set him up nicely to continue his rise in the rankings and eventually break into the Top 25 in 2023. With much tennis still left to play, Nishioka will be looking to build on the progress of recent years and continue his rise in the rankings to try and get some more trophies in that cabinet of his before it’s too late.
