Japan’s prince of tennis
Japan has a new Prince of Tennis, by the name of Kei Nishikori, who is kicking butt in the U.S. open right now after his big win against David Ferrer over the weekend, making him the first Japanese tennis player to advance to the 4th round since 1937.
Born in in rural Shimane Prefecture in 1989, he took up a racket at the age of five and would hit balls against the side of his house for many hours, showing a remarkable aptitude for the sport.
He took the incredible step of leaving Japan behind, crossing over to the U.S. at the age of 13 to be trained at the IMG Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, which caused quite a lot of buzz at the time. As usual, Japanese who compete in the world stage and raise the image of Japan in the eyes of foreigners become overnight sensations in here, and suddenly his name is on everyone’s lips.
I certainly hope that Nishikori-kun can follow stars like Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata in redefining the international image of Japan through sports.
Note: Nishikori finally was defeated and did not make it to the best 8.
Bummer. Great run though. Hopefully he’ll get better and will become a really first rate player.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 amInterested to note your use of the term “best 8″, Peter. Is this an American English turn of phrase, or is this an example of what you mentioned a while ago, of English vocabulary (quarter-final) being usurped by common everyday Japanese equivalents?
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 amI was the one who added the blurb at the bottom, and yes, I have been in Japan too long.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 amYour English is beginning to Level Down.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 amLet’s Beautiful Human Life! Together!
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:38 amHe has ever had problems with English.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 amEC, are you doing work for Miss Pell again….
robin
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:45 pmexcuse me robyn don’t you have work to do over at JNJ?
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pmKei Nishikori won a tournament on February this year with the age of 18 years and one month, which is the all time 13th youngest record.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3253172&name=tennis
In US Open he lost to 19 years old Del Potro who had won last 4 tournaments in a row and advanced now to quarters. I won’t surprise at all if he beat Andy Murray(British Hope) in quarter final.
The strength of Nishikori is his very flexible ground strokes. He can hit the ball in full command into both strait and cross court which the opponent can’t anticipate. I am sure he will be the first top 20 ranking man player from Japan in 2 years.
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pmMiss Pell and I’ve got this thang going on.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pmBy they way, do you people know the difference between misspelling and typing mistakes?
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pmHaha, I regularly have to ask my gaijin staff if a word is “real” English or not. Sometimes we all scratch our heads, not sure.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 pmWhile we’re on the subject, can someone confirm - is ‘co-worker’ valid American English? I’d always assumed it was wasei eigo, having never been aware of encountering it before coming to Japan. In England I’d only ever used and heard ‘a colleague’ or ’someone/a friend from work’, and I’d never heard an American on TV use ‘co-worker’, nor read it anywhere that I remember. But it recently turned up in a dictionary, but with no further explanation.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:12 pmI’m pretty sure that “co-worker” is a perfectly acceptable word in American/Canadian English. (Google backs this up…)
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 pmAh yes. Google would have been the easy way of keeping my ignorance under wraps, wouldn’t it.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 pmUnder the shadow of Nishikori fever, Shingo Kunieda of Japan, a Wheel Chair Tennis’ top-ranked player in the world had accomplished a great achievementby winning all four singles major titles (Australian Open, Japan Open, British Open and US Open) last year which was called ” Wheel Chair Tennis Gland Slam “.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmafp/is_200702/ai_n18656762
In Athens Paralympics he was doubles gold medallist and maybe he will capture the singles gold medal in Beijing Paralympics this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingo_Kunieda
September 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm