Hiroyasu Ehara

Hello everyone, I'm Hiroyasu Ehara. My parents played tennis and took me along; I joined a tennis school at about five, and I was hooked from then on.

As a junior I won the Inter-High doubles and both the singles and doubles at the All Japan Junior under-18s. I turned pro in my third year of high school, won the All Japan Championships singles in 2014, and in 2017 was singles runner-up and doubles champion.

I travelled mainly overseas chasing the Grand Slams, but that dream didn't come true. My career-high singles ranking is No. 330.

Now I play for ONE DROP, a Japan League company team, and put real weight on coaching as well — I coach at a university and as a pro tour coach, wanting to help tennis thrive. I truly love tennis; it's all I've ever done. Having this chance at the World Championships, I want to aim for the world title together with my teammates.

Of course we're aiming to win. It's a team event and how I'll be used isn't decided yet, but I'm the youngest in the 35-and-over squad, so rather than being carried by the veterans I want to be the one who fires them up.

The squad is full of legends, and I want to enjoy it and help make the event exciting.

My forehand is my strength, and I think fighting hard on court is how I can entertain the crowd. I'll keep doing that and contribute to the team.

I couldn't fulfil my dream of playing a Grand Slam, so my big goal is to develop players who can.

Tennis is huge globally, but in Japan it's become less mainstream. I want to grow the number of players and work on creating tournaments here that draw big crowds.

Tennis fans, tennis is a sport you can play at any age and keep improving at any age. Watching, playing — there are many ways to enjoy it, so let's keep it up for life. Let's all keep going together.