66 Facts About Saori Obata

Saori Obata is a former tennis player from Japan.

Saori Obata turned professional in April 1996, and in February 2004, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of 39, and on the same day, she reached her best doubles ranking of 98.

Saori Obata did not win a singles title on WTA Tour in her career, however did reach one final in Tashkent in 2003 where she lost in two sets to Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Saori Obata ended 2000 ranked inside the top 200, at No 161.

Saori Obata then attempted to qualify for the Australian Open, beating Alena Vaskova and Angelika Rosch, before falling in the final qualifying round to Laurence Andretto in three sets.

Saori Obata then had a breakthrough tournament in the highest-tier Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, winning through qualifying by beating top seed Kristie Boogert, wildcard Kumiko Iijima and Janette Husarova.

Saori Obata then beat fellow qualifier Katarina Srebotnik in the first round, before finally falling to third seed Anna Kournikova in a close three-setter.

Saori Obata struggled in the next three tournaments, losing in the first round in Acapulco, Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, before dropping back down to ITF-level at the $25k event in Stone Mountain.

Saori Obata then reached the final of Fukuoka, beating Bryanne Stewart, Haruka Inoue, Adriana Barna, and Lenka Dlhopolcova, before losing again to Molik in the final, in straight sets.

Saori Obata lost in straight sets in the second round of qualifying at the French Open to Canadian Marie-Eve Pelletier.

Saori Obata entered the main draw as a lucky loser, but lost in straight sets to 15th seed Anne-Gaelle Sidot.

Saori Obata lost early in qualifying for San Diego to Jennifer Hopkins, before an impressive win over Anastasia Myskina in the opening qualifying round of the Tier II event at Manhattan Beach Open Tennis Tournament, before falling to Alexandra Stevenson.

Saori Obata then moved on to the $50k Bronx Open, again defeating Boogert in the opening round before losing to Martina Muller.

Saori Obata then lost to fourth seed Sandrine Testud, in three sets.

Saori Obata got another wildcard into the Japan Open, beating Alexandra Fusai and Marlene Weingartner, before losing heavily to second seed Tamarine Tanasugarn in the quarter-finals.

Saori Obata won, as second seed, her final tournament of the year in Nuriootpa, beating qualifier Anouk Sterk, Samantha Stosur, Wheeler again, Bryanne Stewart, and Cho Yoon-jeong in the final.

Saori Obata then made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open as a direct entrant.

Saori Obata lost in straight sets to Maria Elena Camerin.

Saori Obata then fell in straight sets to the seventh seed Elena Dementieva.

Saori Obata then lost to Evelyn Fauth in the opening round of a $50k event in Minneapolis.

Saori Obata reached the quarter finals of the $25k event in Lawrenceville as top seed, by defeating Laura Granville and Dessislava Topalova, before a defeat to qualifier Teryn Ashley.

Saori Obata then lost to Ashley again in a $50k event at Naples in the first round.

Saori Obata then went back to Japan to play two more Challenger events in Gifu and Fukuoka.

Saori Obata then moved on to the Asian swing for her final tournaments of 2002, but lost to Sugiyama in the first round of the Tier IV event in Shanghai, and in three sets to Patricia Wartusch in the opening round of the Toyota Princess Cup.

Saori Obata got back to winning ways in the Tier III event in Bali, with straight sets wins over Jill Craybas and Emmanuelle Gagliardi, before a three-set loss to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals.

Saori Obata finished her year with two straight sets, first-round losses at the Japan Open to Jelena Kostanic Tosic and in Pattaya to Adriana Serra Zanetti.

Saori Obata ended the year ranked just outside the top 100 at 108.

Saori Obata started the year with by qualifying for the Tier V WTA event in Canberra, defeating Claudine Schaul, top seed Dally Randriantefy and Tatiana Poutchek to reach the main draw.

Saori Obata then defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual in the first round, before losing to unseeded Italian Adriana Serra Zanetti.

Saori Obata then failed to qualify for the Australian Open main draw, losing in the final round of qualifying to Maria Emilia Salerni, in straight sets.

Saori Obata then reached the quarterfinals of the Memphis Tier III tournament, defeating Canadian Vanessa Webb and fourth seed Alexandra Stevenson, before losing to Cho Yoon-jeong.

Saori Obata then lost in qualifying at tournaments in Key Biscayne, Sarasota and Charleston.

Saori Obata played two singles matches in Japan's Fed Cup Asia-Oceania qualifying group matches against New Zealand and Hong Kong, winning both her singles matches.

Saori Obata then had two very successful ITF events in Japan, reaching the final of the $50k grass-court event in Gifu as second seed, defeating Julie Pullin, Tomoko Yonemura, Maria Elena Camerin, and Rika Fujiwara, before losing to top seed and rival Shinobu Asagoe.

Saori Obata made a further breakthrough in the grass-court season.

Saori Obata then achieved a notable scalp in the opening round, when she defeated Jelena Dokic in straight sets when Dokic was ranked 11th in the world.

Saori Obata then lost in a final-set tiebreak in the second round to Anna Smashnova.

Saori Obata reached the semifinals of the Tier III tournament in Bali, defeating Ashley Harkleroad, Barbara Schett and Angelique Widjaja, before finally falling to Chanda Rubin in straight sets.

Saori Obata achieved wins against Tatiana Poutchek, Zheng Jie, Jelena Kostanic Tosic and Emmanuelle Gagliardi.

Saori Obata ended her season at the Tier V tournament in Pattaya, winning two rounds before falling to Slovakian Lubomira Kurhajcova, ensuring her highest-ever year-end ranking of 49.

Saori Obata lost in straight sets in the third round to Nathalie Dechy.

Saori Obata followed up her Australian Open success with a win at the Tier I Pan Pacific Open, over Julia Vakulenko, before exiting with a spirited performance against Venus Williams in the second round.

Shortly after this tournament, Saori Obata achieved her career-high ranking of 39.

Saori Obata struggled in the next few tournaments, never gaining more than one win over the next six tournaments before the French Open, including three first round losses.

Saori Obata then had another first-round exit at the French Open, losing in three sets to Vera Dushevina.

Saori Obata won three matches at Birmingham, over Camerin, Kelly McCain and Shenay Perry, before falling in the quarter final to Patty Schnyder.

Saori Obata followed this up with two qualifying wins at Eastbourne, before losing to Elena Likhovtseva.

Saori Obata retired from her Fed Cup singles match against Dessislava Topalova of Bulgaria, then lost in first rounds at the remaining nine tournaments she played, including her first and only appearance representing Japan in the Olympics, where she was shocked by Maja Matevzic, who had been plagued by an elbow injury for most of the previous year.

Saori Obata extended her losing streak to 12 in all competitions, losing in three sets to Maret Ani.

Saori Obata then lost easily in first round of qualifying for Indian Wells to Shikha Uberoi, before deciding to drop back down to the ITF Circuit.

Saori Obata dropped her only set of the week in the final against countrywoman Shiho Hisamatsu, but won her second title in a row.

At Wimbledon, Saori Obata beat Hana Sromova, Jessica Kirkland and Eva Birnerova to reach the main draw, before losing to American Marissa Irvin in round one.

Saori Obata then lost in the final round of qualifying of the Los Angeles Tier II event, but lost to Kateryna Bondarenko.

Saori Obata made the main draw as a lucky loser, but lost to qualifier Tathiana Garbin.

Saori Obata then rounded off a disappointing North American swing with a loss in the first round of qualifying at the US Open to sixth seed Hana Sromova whom she had beaten two months previously at the same stage of Wimbledon.

Saori Obata started the Asian swing with a disappointing loss in the second round of qualifying in the Tier II tournament in Beijing, before making it through three rounds of qualifying in Seoul.

Saori Obata then beat Maria Vento-Kabchi in the first round, before going out to eighth seed Marion Bartoli.

Saori Obata moved on to the Tier III event in Bangkok, winning through qualifying with wins over Carly Gullickson, Natalie Grandin and top seed Shenay Perry.

Saori Obata then suffered a disappointing first-round loss as top seed to Kim Jin-hee in the first round of the $50k event in Busan.

Saori Obata's ranking was enough to give her entry to the main draw of the Australian Open, and she started her year with her regular warm-up tournament in Canberra.

Saori Obata entered qualifying for the Tier I event at the Pan Pacific Open, where she'd had success before.

Saori Obata then moved on to the Tier IV event in Pattaya where she lost in the first round of qualifying to Hsieh Su-wei.

In late May 2006, Saori Obata confirmed she had retired from tennis due to a foot injury she had picked up at Indian Wells.

Saori Obata said her best memories from tennis were her first Wimbledon and being on the final at Tashkent.

Saori Obata won a doubles title at WTA-level, and five ITF-level singles titles.

Saori Obata retired from professional tennis in June 2006 because of injury.