Crafty, quirky, clinical: Ito wins biggest title yet at W100 Takasaki

Aoi Ito continued her breakthrough year on the ITF World Tennis Tour after winning the biggest title of her career on home hard courts at W100 Takasaki.

The 20-year-old from Japan, who has an unorthodox game-style packed full of spins and slices and regularly swats her forehand, won her third title of the season without dropping a set, beating China’s Sijia Wei 7-5 6-4 in the final.

It follows a runner-up finish at W35 Hamamatsu earlier in the month, and her first WTA semi-final at the Japan Open in October.

Ito, who has also won titles at W15 Kawaguchi and W50 Nanao and finished runner-up at four further events this year, leapt 21 places to a career-high WTA ranking of No. 129 on Monday as a result.

Ito is now the Japanese No. 3, behind world No. 57 Moyuka Uchijima and No. 60 Naomi Osaka.

The 20-year-old is a relatively unknown quantity on the global tour. Unlike many players, she barely competed on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors as an emerging player.

She played just four ITF junior events between 2018 and 2019, before playing more regularly on the ITF World Tennis Tour from 2021 onwards.

Ito has capitalised on flying under the radar when facing bigger names this year, stunning former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and Top 50 player Elisabetta Cocciaretto on her WTA debut at last month’s Japan Open.

She told the WTA at the time she models her approach on Hsieh Su-Wei, saying: “I’m aiming to play tennis like Hsieh, and I’m trying to become unique.

"I don't have any power, so I try to compete by technique. By slicing, by drop shots, by figuring out how to beat power."

Ito was joined in the ITF winners' circle by the likes of Priscilla Hon, Whitney Osuigwe and Antonio Ruzic, who all won W50 titles this weekend.

Click here for all the weekend's results on the ITF World Tennis Tour