Watch Yosuke Watanuki play and you will find a man who swings for the fences, crushing forehand winners at the first opportunity. He never holds back. The Japanese star competes with the same type of freedom that he feels when he enjoys a late-night drive back home.
Though he’s often travelling on the ATP Tour, when Watanuki is savouring a late-night ride, it’s as if tennis is a million miles away. Sometimes there’s music, other times there’s nothing but the still of the night.
“When I stay in Japan, I love to drive my car after midnight,” Watanuki told ATPTour.com. “Tennis can be so stressful, so much pressure. When I drive in that moment, it’s like I feel nothing. It’s relaxing… Just drive, nothing special. A day off or feeling bad, if I’m not feeling well, then I go and drive for like two hours.”
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The 25-year-old, who is a three-time ATP Challenger Tour champion, made those peaceful rides more thrilling by purchasing a sports car after his maiden Grand Slam main-draw victory at this year’s Australian Open. His love for cars does not stop there.
If Watanuki were not a tennis player, he stated that he would work for a car manufacturer. But he has been building something of his own with a racquet in hand, cracking the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time Monday.
Watanuki’s ferocious baseline play was on full display at this year’s Miami Open presented by Itau, where he crushed 55 winners as he pushed 12th seed Frances Tiafoe to a three-set battle. That same tournament, American Christopher Eubanks was taking similar free cuts at the ball to reach the quarter-finals and rise into the Top 100.
Eubanks, 27, is also a three-time ATP Challenger Tour titlist and is now a Top 30 player after winning the Mallorca Championships and reaching the last eight at Wimbledon. Though Eubanks and Watanuki have their differences, they both produce exciting, swashbuckling tennis.
Watanuki is just the latest example of players finding success at the Challenger level before having more opportunities to showcase their talent on the ATP Tour. He finished last season with back-to-back Challenger titles on home soil and has since earned wins at the Australian Open, in Miami, on the Madrid clay and at Wimbledon. Watanuki is in action at this week’s Mubadala Citi DC Open, where he will face Chinese star Wu Yibing in the first round Monday.
Yosuke Watanuki claims his first Wimbledon main-draw victory. Credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
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