Nao Hibino

Nao Hibino (日比野 菜緒) is a Japanese professional tennis player.

She has been ranked as high as No. 56 in singles and No. 43 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

Hibino has won three singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

Along with that, she has won eight singles and ten doubles tournaments on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour.

Hibino was born on November 28, 1994, in Ichinomiya, Japan.

Coming from a tennis-loving family, she is named after former top-20 player Naoko Sawamatsu, while her brother is named after Shuzo Matsuoka.

She also has one older sister.

At the age of 10, she and her brother were introduced to tennis by their mother.

She began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in January 2009 at the age of 14.

The following March, she made her debut at the Grade 1 Japan Open in Nagoya, reaching the second round in both the singles and doubles events.

Three weeks later, she won her first junior singles title at the Grade-4 Gallipoli Youth Tennis Cup in Queensland after defeating Ashleigh Barty in the final.

There she also won her first doubles title.

In October, she played her strongest tournament to date, the Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup, where she advanced to the second round.

She had a better result in doubles, reaching the quarterfinal alongside Mana Ayukawa.

After starting the 2011 season with an early loss at the Grade-1 Loy Yang Traralgon International in Traralgon, she made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open.

In singles, she reached the second round, while in doubles she lost in the first round alongside Emily Fanning.

At her next tournament, the Grade-1 Chang LTAT ITF Junior Championships in Nonthaburi, Hibino achieved her most significant result to date in singles, getting to the semifinals.

Two weeks later, she had her biggest result in doubles as well, winning her first Grade-1 title at the Mitsubishi-Lancer International Championships in Manila.

In her two following tournaments, she won two Grade-4 events in Australia in both the singles and doubles, including the one in Queensland where she defended her titles.

Her singles performance then started to decline, as she lost in the early rounds at tournaments such as the French Open, Wimbledon, the Canadian Open, the US Open, the Osaka Mayor's Cup, and the Japan Open.

However, her doubles performance continued to lead to good results as she reached the semifinals of the Canadian Open and Osaka Mayor's Cup.

She closed out the season with a singles quarterfinal and a doubles title at the Grade-B1 Seogwipo Asian/Oceania Closed International Championships in Jeju-do.

The 2012 season was the final junior season for Hibino.

She played once again at the Australian Open but again had little success with only a second round appearance in singles and a first-round appearance in doubles.

Her last tournament was the Grade-1 Mitsubishi-Lancer International Juniors Championships in Manila, where she reached the semifinal in singles and quarterfinal in doubles.

As a junior, she won four singles and five doubles titles in total on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Hibino began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in May 2012 at the age of 17.

She played in the qualifying draw of the $25k tournament in Karuizawa in the singles event but failed to reach the main draw.

Hibino made her breakthrough in 2015, when she won her first WTA Tour title in singles at the Tashkent Open.

As a result, she debuted in the top 100.

Since then she has spent several years in the top 100, and has been in the top 150 constantly except for a period between February 2022 and September 2022 after a layoff from October 2021 to late April 2022.

In 2015, Hibino moved to Kobe, Japan for training.

She enjoys spending time with her family because she rarely gets the chance to live with them.

When she returns home, she often goes shopping with her sister and takes their dogs for a walk.

She also likes reading and often reads in her spare time.

Hibino enjoys eating local foods and sightseeing at famous places while travelling on tour.

Since a young age, she has dreamt of playing on the Centre Court of Wimbledon.

Hibino reached a career-high ranking of No. 54 as a junior.

Hibino was the number-one-ranked Japanese player in the WTA rankings for five weeks starting on 11 January 2016, and reached this position again on 3 April 2023.

She has represented Japan at national competitions, debuting in Fed Cup in 2016, and at the Summer Olympics in 2021.