Misaki Doi announces retirement from tennis in September

Former World No.30 Misaki Doi will end her professional career next month, the Japanese player has announced.

Doi, 32, will retire after playing the final tournaments of her career on home soil in Osaka and Tokyo.

"Over the past year, I've been dealing with some persistent issues with my back," she wrote on social media. "Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to play without experiencing pain. Given the current circumstances, continuing to play at the high level I aspire to has become quite challenging, which led me to make this decision.

"I started playing tennis at the age of 6 and turned pro at 17. My journey as a player has had its ups and downs, but it has also been incredibly rewarding, filled with many valuable experiences. Looking back, I realize how fortunate I've been to have had such a fulfilling tennis career."

Doi was a two-time junior Grand Slam finalist, at Wimbledon 2007 with Kurumi Nara and at the 2008 Australian Open with Elena Bogdan. She made her tour-level debut by qualifying for Roland Garros 2010, and cracked the Top 100 in November 2012 after reaching back-to-back WTA semifinals in Osaka and Taipei.

The left-handed Doi captured her sole WTA title on indoor hard courts at Luxembourg 2015, where she upset Andrea Petkovic in the first round for the first of six career Top 20 wins and defeated Mona Barthel in the final. She would also reach two further finals: at Kaohsiung 2016, falling to Venus Williams, and at Hiroshima 2019, where she lost the second all-Japanese WTA final of the Open Era to Nao Hibino.

Though two of Doi's tour-level finals would come indoors, she proved she was an all-surface threat by winning two WTA 125 titles, at San Antonio 2016 on outdoor hard courts and at Bastad 2019 on clay. Furthermore, her career-best Grand Slam performance came on grass when she reached the 2016 Wimbledon fourth round. Doi would hit her career-high ranking of No.30 in October that year, and compiled six Top 100 seasons in total between 2012 and 2020.

Doi's career-best victories also included Top 20 wins over Lucie Safarova (at Rome 2016), Karolina Pliskova (at Wimbledon 2016) and Madison Keys (at Madrid 2017). Between Roland Garros 2010 and Wimbledon 2022, she contested 36 Grand Slam main draws, and famously held match point on eventual champion Angelique Kerber in the first round of the 2016 Australian Open. Doi was also a two-time tour-level doubles champion, at Istanbul 2014 (with Elina Svitolina) and Hiroshima 2019 (with Hibino).

As recently as last year, Doi was still able to hit new milestones, reaching her first WTA 500 semifinal at Adelaide 2022 to start the season. However, she has played just nine tournaments so far in 2023, and has not been active since reaching the Ricany ITF W60 final in June.

Doi's retirement marks the ending of a generation of Japanese tennis. Last year, her junior peer and former doubles partner Kurumi Nara ended her career; and last month, another former Top 100 compatriot, Ayumi Morita, also announced her retirement.