Yosuke Watanuki

Yosuke Watanuki
綿貫陽介
	Watanuki in 2018
Country (sports)	Japan
Residence	Saitama, Japan
Born	12 April 1998 (age 26); Saitama, Japan
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	January 2016
Plays	Right-handed (two handed-backhand)
Coach	Yusuke Watanuki
Prize money	$1,013,687
Singles
Career record	17–21
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 72 (30 October 2023)
Current ranking	No. 338 (23 September 2024)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2023)
French Open	Q2 (2023)
Wimbledon	2R (2023)
US Open	1R (2023)
Doubles
Career record	2–3
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 374 (7 January 2019)
Current ranking	No. 453 (9 September 2024)
Medal record
Men's tennis
Representing Japan
Asian Games
	Last updated on: 9 September 2024.

Yosuke Watanuki (綿貫陽介, Watanuki Yōsuke, born 12 April 1998) is a Japanese professional tennis player.^[1] He has a career-high ATP ranking of World No. 72 achieved on 30 October 2023 and a doubles ranking of No. 374 achieved on 7 January 2019. He is currently the No. 10 Japanese player.^[2]

Juniors

On the junior tour, Watanuki has a career high combined ranking of No. 2 achieved on 21 March 2016. Watanuki was the winner of the 2016 Campeonato Internacional Juvenil de Tenis de Porto Alegre, a Grade A event in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Professional career

2018–19: ATP & ATP 500 debuts & first win, Maiden Challenger title

He made his ATP and ATP 500 debut at the 2018 Citi Open after qualifying.

Watanuki first main draw match victory on the ATP Tour came at the 2018 Rakuten Japan Open over Robin Haase as a qualifier.^[3]

He won his maiden title at the 2019 Kobe Challenger.^[4]

2021–22: ATP quarterfinal, Two Challenger titles, Top 150

Watanuki entered the 2021 Winston-Salem Open as a lucky loser and won his first match against Jaume Munar. He lost to Márton Fucsovics in the second round.

He reached the quarterfinals of an ATP tournament for the first time in his career, winning his first two matches in a row at this level, as a lucky loser at the 2022 ATP Lyon Open. First he defeated eight seed Pedro Martínez for his second top-50 win.^[5] Next he defeated Kwon Soon-woo^[6] to set up a quarterfinal with Alex de Minaur.^[7] As a result, he returned to the top 225 in the rankings climbing 40 positions in the rankings at world No. 223 on 23 May 2022.

He qualified for his third ATP 500 at the 2022 Citi Open in Washington, D.C., and second time at this tournament, but lost to Kyle Edmund who was playing his first singles match after his comeback.^[8]

In November he won two back-to-back titles in Japan at the Hyōgo Noah Challenger in Kobe and in Yokkaichi defeating Frederico Ferreira Silva in both and moved into the top 150 at world No. 145 on 28 November 2022.^[9]

2023-2024: Grand Slam & Masters debuts and first wins, top 75

In January, Watanuki qualified for the 2023 Australian Open to make his Grand Slam debut.^[10]^[11] He beat Arthur Rinderknech in the first round in straight sets for his first Major win before losing to Sebastian Korda.^[12]

Watanuki qualified for his first Masters 1000 2023 Miami Open and won his first round match against fellow qualifier Benoît Paire but lost to 12th seed Frances Tiafoe. As a result, he moved to a new career high ranking of No. 107 on 3 April 2023.

Ranked No. 117, he also qualified for his second Masters at the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open and defeated Corentin Moutet in the first round.

At the 2023 BOSS Open he qualified and won his first round match against wildcard Feliciano López.^[13] He entered the main draw at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships as a lucky loser for the first time at this Major and defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler in a five set match for his second Major win. As a result, two weeks later, he reached the top 100 at world No. 99 on 31 July 2023.^[14]

At the 2023 Rolex Shanghai Masters he defeated wildcard Juncheng Shang to reach the second round for the third time at a Masters level in the season. As a result, he rose into the top 75 in the rankings. He received a wildcard for the main draw at the ATP 500 2023 Japan Open in Tokyo.

He finished the 2023 season ranked inside the top 100 at world No. 99.

In September 2024, ranked No. 338 he again received a wildcard in Tokyo, this time for the qualifying competition. He then entered the qualifying rounds of the Shanghai Masters in October 2024 using a protected ranking, and qualified for the main draw after beating Otto Virtanen and Hong Seong-chan. In the main draw, he upset Pavel Kotov and 32nd seed Brandon Nakashima to reach the third round. As a result, he returned to the top 300 of the world's rankings.

Personal life

Watanuki has two brothers, Yusuke and Keisuke, who are both also professional tennis players.

ATP Challenger and ITF Tour Finals

Singles: 14 (9–5)

Legend (singles)
ATP Challenger Tour (4–4)
ITF Futures Tour (5–1)

Titles by surface
Hard (9–5)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Apr 2016	Japan F4, Tsukuba	Futures	Hard	Shintaro Imai	1–6, 6–4, 6–2
Win	2–0	Apr 2016	Japan F5, Kashiwa	Futures	Hard	Makoto Ochi	6–3, 6–3
Win	3–0	Jun 2017	Japan F7, Tokyo	Futures	Hard	Kento Takeuchi	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
Loss	3–1	Jun 2017	Chinese Taipei F1, Taipei	Futures	Hard	Daniel Nguyen	6–7^(8–10), 1–6
Win	4–1	Jun 2017	Chinese Taipei F2, Taipei	Futures	Hard	Yusuke Takahashi	6–2, 6–3
Win	5–1	Apr 2018	Japan F4, Tsukuba	Futures	Hard	Renta Tokuda	7–5, 6–1
Loss	5–2	Nov 2018	Kobe, Japan	Challenger	Hard (i)	Tatsuma Ito	6–3, 5–7, 3–6
Win	6–2	Nov 2019	Kobe, Japan	Challenger	Hard (i)	Yūichi Sugita	6–2, 6–4
Loss	6–3	Feb 2020	Cleveland, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Mikael Torpegaard	3–6, 6–1, 1–6
Loss	6–4	Oct 2022	Yokohama, Japan	Challenger	Hard	Christopher O'Connell	1–6, 7–6^(7–5), 3–6
Win	7–4	Nov 2022	Kobe, Japan	Challenger	Hard (i)	Frederico Ferreira Silva	6–7^(3–7), 7–5, 6–4
Win	8–4	Nov 2022	Yokkaichi, Japan	Challenger	Hard	Frederico Ferreira Silva	6–2, 6–2
Loss	8–5	Sep 2023	Shanghai, China	Challenger	Hard	Christopher O'Connell	3–6, 5–7
Win	9–5	Nov 2023	Yokohama, Japan	Challenger	Hard	Yuta Shimizu	7–6^(7–5), 6–4

Other significant finals

Gold Medal matches

Singles: 1 (1 silver medal)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Silver	2022	Asian Games	Hard	Zhang Zhizhen	4–6, 6–7^(7–9)

Record against top 10 players

Watanuki's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw matches are considered:

Player	Record	Win %	Hard	Clay	Grass	Last Match
Number 1 ranked players
Daniil Medvedev	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–3, 5–7, 1–6) at 2018 Washington
Number 2 ranked players
Casper Ruud	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–7^(6–8), 3–6) at 2023 Tokyo
Alexander Zverev	0–1	0%	–	–	0–1	Lost (4–6, 7–5, 2–6, 2–6) at 2023 Wimbledon
Number 3 ranked players
Milos Raonic	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (3–6, 6–7^(2–7)) at 2018 Tokyo
Number 5 ranked players
Taylor Fritz	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–7^(2–7), 7–6^(8–6), 4–6) at 2023 Shanghai Masters
Number 6 ranked players
Félix Auger-Aliassime	1–0	100%	1–0	–	–	Won (7–6^(12–10), 7–6^(7–3)) at 2023 Washington
Number 8 ranked players
Cameron Norrie	0–1	0%	–	0–1	–	Lost (4–6, 6–7^(5–7)) at 2023 Madrid Masters
Number 9 ranked players
Hubert Hurkacz	0–1	0%	–	–	0–1	Lost (6–4, 6–7^(5–7), 6–7^(5–7)) at 2023 Stuttgart
Number 10 ranked players
Frances Tiafoe	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (7–6^(7–5), 6–7^(3–7), 4–6) at 2023 Miami Masters
Total	1–8	11.11%	1–5 (16.67%)	0–1 (0%)	0–2 (0%)	* Statistics correct as of 17 October 2023^[update].