Tatsuma Ito

Hello everyone, I'm Tatsuma Ito. I started tennis at nine, in the third grade. I have two older sisters, and they got me into it.

My main results are the All Japan Championships titles in 2013 and 2018. I played in the main draw of the Grand Slams several times, and I competed at the 2012 London Olympics.

I retired in 2024. Now I mainly focus on junior development at Sakurada Club in Tokyo. When I have time, I run events with recreational players and sometimes work as a tour coach for pros.

This World Championships is a team event. Tennis is an individual sport, but I've played team competitions like the Davis Cup and the Asian Games, and team events really fire me up — I love them. I retired two years ago, but when I heard about this tournament, I thought: let's go for the title together.

Fans who supported me during my career will probably come, so even though I've retired, I want as many people as possible to see how I play now.

My game is aggressive, built around attacking with the forehand, and I hope to bring that out. After two years away, I also want to show a few deft touches — and get the crowd going, laughs included.

Since retiring, I've been involved in tennis in many ways — tour coaching, junior development, playing with recreational players. Tennis spans every age, and I want to keep growing the number of people who play.

I want juniors to have dreams, set their own goals and move on to the next stage, and I want to help with that. Someday it would be great to hold a tournament in my own name — I'd need sponsors to support it, so I'll work on that too.

Lots of people in my generation and older play tennis. I want to show them I'm still giving it everything.

It's also an easy place for little kids and juniors to come and watch, and I hope it inspires some of them to start playing. A great world event like this is being held in Tokyo, so I'd love for lots of people to come.