Lily Miyazaki

Yuriko Lily Miyazaki (born 11 November 1995) is a Japanese-born British tennis player. She has career-high rankings by the WTA of world No. 133 in singles and No. 223 in doubles. She has won seven singles titles and eight doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

Early life, junior and college career

Miyazaki settled in London aged 10, having previously lived in Tokyo and then Switzerland. She trained at Sutton Tennis Academy up until the age of 18. She switched to British nationality in March 2022, as Japanese citizens are not allowed to hold dual citizenship.

Miyazaki attended the University of Oklahoma (2014–2019), where she completed an undergraduate degree in mathematics followed by a master's degree in information technology management. She played No. 1 singles all four years at Oklahoma, recording an overall record of 96–35, and was named to the All-Big 12 first team three times.

Professional career

Miyazaki made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2021 Transylvania Open, partnering Anastasia Gasanova in the doubles tournament. She made her WTA Tour singles debut at the 2022 Lyon Open, after qualifying for the main draw. Miyazaki switched from representing Japan to Great Britain in March 2022.

In June 2022, it was announced that Miyazaki had been awarded a main-draw wildcard for the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, where she made her Grand Slam debut.

In October 2022, Miyazaki won her first $60k title in Glasgow beating former top 40 player, compatriot Heather Watson, in the final, coming back from a set and a double break down.

In September 2023, she made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open and recorded her first win at this major as a qualifier. She made her breakthrough by coming through three rounds of qualifying defeating 23rd seed Daria Snigur, and Valeria Savinykh in straight sets, and ninth seed Viktória Hrunčáková in the final round. In the first round of the main draw, she drew former top-50 player Margarita Betova, who had entered on a protected ranking following injuries and a maternity break. Miyazaki won in straight sets, achieving her first ever Grand Slam singles win. She subsequently lost in the second round to 15th seed Belinda Bencic winning three games in each set, and rose to a career-high ranking of No. 154 on 11 September 2023, after the event.

Given a wildcard entry into the main draw at 2024 Wimbledon, Miyazaki won her first round match against Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 6-2 6-1 before losing to 12th seed Daria Kasatkina 6-0 6-0 in round two.

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 12 (7 titles, 5 runner–ups)

Doubles: 13 (8 titles, 5 runner-ups)

References

External links

• Lily Miyazaki at the Women's Tennis Association
• Lily Miyazaki at the International Tennis Federation