Country (sports) Japan Career titles 0 WTA, 5 ITF Weight 60 kg Residence Tokyo, Japan Name Saori Obata Turned pro April 1996 | Prize money $652,031 Role Tennis player Retired June 2006 Career record 281–222 Height 1.65 m | |
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Born April 23, 1978 (age 45)
Sapporo, Japan ( 1978-04-23 ) Plays Left-handed (two-handed backhand) | ||
Saori Obata (Japanese: 小畑沙織, Obata Saori, born 23 April 1978) is a retired tennis player from Japan. She turned professional in April 1996, and on February 9, 2004, she achieved her career-high singles ranking of 39, and on the same day she reached her career-high doubles ranking of 98.
Biography
She did not win a WTA singles title in her career, however did reach 1 singles final in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2003 where she lost 6–2, 7–6(2) to the Spanish player Virginia Ruano-Pascual. In the same year she reached the semi-final of the WTA event in Bali, Indonesia before losing to Chanda Rubin. She achieved a notable scalp in the opening round of the Eastbourne grass event in 2003, when she defeated Jelena Dokić 6–3 6–1 when Dokić was ranked 11 in the world. She also defeated Ai Sugiyama in the second round of the Australian Open in 2004 when ranked number 55, this was her only win over a top 10 player as Sugiyama was ranked number 9 at the time.
She has won a doubles title at WTA level (Memphis 2003, with Akiko Morigami), and has five ITF level singles titles. Her final Grand Slam appearance was at the 2006 Australian Open where she lost in the opening round, having qualified, to Daniela Hantuchová in three sets. She retired from professional tennis in June 2006 because of injury.