At the tender age of 15 years and one month, Ayumi Morita was the youngest Japanese player ever to turn professional. Under the tutelage of Junichi Maruyama, former coach of Ai Sugiyama, expectations were high from the outset. Morita didn’t hide the fact that her dream was to win a Grand Slam one day. But six years later she has yet to win her first WTA title, or savor that big breakthrough moment. So why is she a player to watch?
After defeating Morita at last year’s U.S. Open, Francesca Schiavone said that her opponent really had to play to her known strengths, such as her groundstrokes, rather than look for radical alternatives.
“Everybody has different qualities,” reasoned the French Open champion, “If she has this quality, (she) has to work on this. If Pat Rafter was playing serve and volley and he couldn’t play behind every point, you score. You push your player to play the quality that he has. Everybody is different.”
It was sound advice. At 5’ 7”, Morita doesn’t win many cheap points with her serve at this level. That isn’t what she is about. Solid, flat, two-handed groundstrokes off both wings, coupled with superb speed, agility, and footwork, form the basis of Morita’s game. Her ascent up the ranking ladder may not have been as swift as her hero, Martina Hingis, but steady incremental progress is equally valid, and a hallmark of the determined and spirited 21-year-old’s development; finishing 2011 almost thirty places higher than the previous year, at No. 47 in the world.
When you consider Li Na, Francesca Schiavone, and Sam Stosur, each joined the grand slam champion honor roll in their late twenties, and when you have Marion Bartoli entering her late twenties knocking on the grand slam trophy room door with fists of fire.. there is still plenty of time therefore for both hands both sides colleague Ayumi Morita to further develop her Selesian game..
“We have the same game.” Observed Bartoli, after the outstanding clash in Tokyo back in September. “She’s obviously very young, but I think she’s improving all the time. Playing in your home country can be a lot of pressure.”
Morita recognizes that, but the Japanese No.1 feels that she has matured sufficiently well to take a lead role in carrying her country’s hopes. “I’ve had to step up and take on a new role,” she said, accepting the ITF Heart Award for her decisive play in Japan’s 3-0 Fed Cup win over Uzbekistan in February. “I’ve grown a lot in the last three years since I first began playing Fed Cup. I’m more mature now. I have to set the example for the younger players.”
By tragic coincidence, that symbolic milestone of maturity–the 21st birthday, was marred in Ayumi’s case by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami which devastated her homeland in March, and occurred on her birthday.
“When I heard the news it was a very tough moment for me,” she said. “My mum said in Japan it’s a very difficult situation, it’s been very tough times, but she told me I should focus on my tennis — and that’s the only thing I can do.”
Wins over Kvitova and Ivanovic show that Ayumi has taken heed of her mother’s instruction, in addition to that career-best, third round finish at the Australian Open in January. Results were also bolstered by the fact that Morita is rapidly making things more competitive against tour heavies, such as Bartoli, Stosur, and Schiavone (taking a set from each in the 2nd half of the season).
Perhaps two of the strongest pieces of circumstantial evidence that the Gunma native can continue to grow strong in her role as Japan’s leading player are Ai Sugiyama and Kimiko Date-Krumm. The land of the rising sun has a fine tradition of producing consistent and durable players. Sugiyama holds the all time record of 62 consecutive grand slam appearances, and then there is the phenomenal Kimiko Date-Krumm, who among other accomplishments, entered her forties last year with a win over Maria Sharapova on home soil.
Memorable wins like that one play to the home crowd for sure, but with Kimiko going one way in the rankings this year and Ayumi going the other, you just get the sense that there is a changing of the guard in Japanese tennis. The injection of fresh blood from the likes of Ayumi and teen talents Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara can only help to maintain the vitality of a sport in a country which has arguably the strongest tennis tradition and appetite of any nation in the region.
As if to underline it all. Ayumi closed her season playing a match replete with symbolism; a fine cross-generational battle of flat strokes with Kimiko Date-Krumm. The outcome–a curt 6-2 6-2 victory for the younger lady, who took home the 100K Tapei challenger title and secured that top 50 finish.
The Japanese have a proverb, “Kame no kou yori toshi no kou”, which literally means, “Maturity is greater in value than a tortoise shell.”
Tortoise or Hare. Ayumi seems to be getting there one way or another. If not a Grand Slam title just yet–a debut WTA title is within reach. Keep your eye on her anyway.
Alice Cochrane writes about leading French tennis player Marion Bartoli, at Marion Bartoli Fan Blog.
