Taro Daniel

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Taro Daniel (ダニエル 太郎, Danieru Tarō, born 27 January 1993) is a Japanese professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 58 on 15 January 2024. He has won one ATP Tour singles title at the 2018 Istanbul Open, as well as eight ATP Challenger Tour singles titles.^[1] He was for a time the No. 1 Japanese player in men's singles.^[2]

Personal life

Taro's mother, Yasue, was Japanese and his father, Paul Daniel, is American. He grew up in various places throughout the world. He spent most of his elementary school days in

Taro started playing tennis when he was 7 years old.[3] He practiced at the Shinrin Longwood Tennis Club in Nagoya City during his years in Japan. He got third place for under 12 in the All Japan Junior Tennis Tournament.

2011–13: First Challenger final, top 250

Daniel had won a couple of

2014: Grand Slam debut

Daniel reached the third qualifying round of the

At the 2014 Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal against the Czech Republic, Daniel was nominated for the first time for the Japan Davis Cup team.^[4] He played the singles rubber, but lost to Lukáš Rosol in a five-setter and Jiří Veselý.

Daniel qualified for the 2014 US Open to make his Grand Slam main-draw debut, losing to fifth seed Milos Raonic in the first round.^[5] The next week, he reached the final at the Seville Challenger, where he was defeated by top seed Pablo Carreño Busta.

2015: Top 100

After competing in the ATP events of Montpellier and Casablanca, Daniel defeated

He entered the top 100 in the ATP rankings for the first time at world no. 93 on 23 November 2015.[8]

2016: Masters debut and win, Major first win, Olympics debut

Daniel received direct entry to the main draw of the 2016 Australian Open, losing in the first round to Lukáš Rosol in five sets. In February, he reached the second round of the Open Sud de France before losing to eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets. At 2016 Davis Cup World Group first round in Birmingham, Japan faced defending champion Great Britain. He was defeated by world No. 2 Andy Murray in straight sets; Japan lost 1–3.

Daniel qualified for the

Daniel competed in the Olympics, where he defeated the No. 14 seed Jack Sock in straight sets in the first round. Daniel then beat Kyle Edmund of Great Britain before losing to Juan Martín del Potro, despite having won the first set.

2017–18: First Masters third round and ATP title, Top 65 debut

Daniel reached the second round of the 2017 US Open where he lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets.^[9]

In March at the 2018 Indian Wells Masters, Daniel qualified for the main draw and defeated Cameron Norrie^[10] and world No. 13 Novak Djokovic in three sets to reach the third round.^[11]

In May, he made his first ATP final at the 2018 Istanbul Open, where he played Tunisian Malek Jaziri, also in his first final. Daniel beat Jaziri 7–6 6–4 to win his first ATP title. Daniel climbed to his career high ranking of No. 64 on 27 August 2018.

He finished the 2018 season ranked No. 77.

2019–21: Out of top 100, Olympics

Daniel, as a lucky loser, reached the semifinals in 2021 Serbia Open in Belgrade, where he beat João Sousa, 7th seed John Millman and Federico Delbonis, but lost to second seed and eventual champion Matteo Berrettini.^[12]

2022: Grand Slam third round, back to top 100

After winning through

At the 2022 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March, having beaten him at Melbourne, Daniel lost to Andy Murray, giving the Scot the 700th match win of his career on the ATP Tour.^[14]

Daniel reached back-to-back quarterfinals in

Ranked No. 125 at the Mexican Open, Daniel reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier defeating second seed Casper Ruud for his first top 10 win of his career.^[15][16]

At the

He received a wildcard into the 2023 Miami Open^[18] where he defeated Arthur Rinderknech who retired in the first round. Next he defeated 13th seed Alexander Zverev to reach back-to-back Masters third rounds in two weeks.^[19][3]

He finished the 2023 season ranked No. 75, his highest year-end career ranking.

2024: Second ATP final, top 60, Japanese No. 1

Taro reached his second ATP final at the 2024 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand defeating top seed Ben Shelton. As a result he reached the top 60 in the singles rankings on 15 January 2024. He became the No. 1 Japanese male player.

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent
Win	1–0	May 2018	Istanbul Open, Turkey	250 Series	Clay	Malek Jaziri	7–6(7–4), 6–4
Loss	1–1	Jan 2024	Auckland, New Zealand	250 Series	Hard	Alejandro Tabilo	2–6, 5–7

Challenger and ITF Finals

Singles: 27 (12-15)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0-1	May 2011	Spain F14, Balaguer	Futures	Clay	João Sousa	3–6, 1–6
Loss	0-2	Sep 2011	Spain F32, Oviedo	Futures	Clay	Andrey Kuznetsov	5–7, 1–6
Loss	0-3	May 2012	Spain F12, Valldoreix	Futures	Clay	Jordi Samper Montaña	6–4, 6–7(2–7), 5–7
Win	1-3	Jun 2012	Spain F15, Santa Margarida de Montbui	Futures	Clay	Alexander Lobkov	7–5, 7–5
Win	2-3	Jul 2012	Spain F20, Gandia	Futures	Clay	Marc Giner	6–3, 6–4
Loss	2-4	Aug 2012	Spain F22, Xativa	Futures	Clay	Ivan Navarro	3–6, 3–6
Loss	2-5	Feb 2013	Spain F2, Mallorca	Futures	Clay	Pablo Carreño Busta	3–6, 7–5, 1–6
Win	3-5	May 2013	Spain F14, Valldoreix	Futures	Clay	Steven Diez	6–3, 6–2
Win	4-5	Oct 2013	Portugal F9, Porto	Futures	Clay	Ricardo Ojeda Lara	6–0, 6–3
Loss	4-6	Nov 2013	Yeongwol, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Bradley Klahn	6–7(5–7), 2–6
Loss	4-7	Sep 2014	Seville, Spain	Challenger	Clay	Pablo Carreño Busta	4–6, 1–6
Win	5-7	Apr 2015	Vercelli , Italy	Challenger	Clay	Filippo Volandri	6–3, 1–6, 6–4
Win	6-7	Jun 2015	Fürth, Germany	Challenger	Clay	Albert Montañés	6–3, 6–0
Loss	6-8	Nov 2015	Kobe, Japan	Challenger	Hard (i)	John Millman	1–6, 3–6
Win	7-8	Nov 2015	Yokohama, Japan	Challenger	Hard	Go Soeda	4–6, 6–3, 6–3
Win	8-8	Aug 2016	Cordenons, Italy	Challenger	Clay	Daniel Gimeno Traver	6–3, 6–4
Loss	8-9	Sep 2016	Seville, Spain	Challenger	Clay	Casper Ruud	3–6, 4–6
Loss	8-10	Jan 2017	Maui, USA	Challenger	Hard	Chung Hyeon	6–7(3–7), 1–6
Win	9-10	Mar 2017	Tigre, Argentina	Challenger	Hard	Leonardo Mayer	5–7, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	9-11	Jun 2017	Lisbon, Portugal	Challenger	Clay	Oscar Otte	6–4, 1–6, 3–6
Loss	9-12	Oct 2017	Ningbo , China	Challenger	Hard	Mikhail Youzhny	1–6, 1–6
Loss	9-13	Nov 2017	Canberra, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Matthew Ebden	6–7(4–7), 4–6
Loss	9-14	Jun 2018	Poznań, Poland	Challenger	Clay	Hubert Hurkacz	1–6, 1–6
Win	10-14	Jan 2020	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Yannick Hanfmann	6–2, 6–2
Win	11-14	Nov 2020	Hamburg , Germany	Challenger	Hard (i)	Sebastian Ofner	6–1, 6–2
Win	12-14	Oct 2023	Sydney , Australia	Challenger	Hard	Marc Polmans	6–2, 6–4
Loss	12-15	Nov 2023	Matsuyama, Japan	Challenger	Hard	Luca Nardi	6–3, 4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2013	Kenitra, Morocco	Clay	Alexander Rumyantsev	Jordi Samper-Montana	4–6, 4–6

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the 2024 French Open – Men's singles.

Record against top-10 players

Daniel's match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in boldface

:* As of 31 May 2023^[update]

Wins over top 10 players

• He has a 1–9 (10.0%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	TDR
2023
1.	Casper Ruud	4	Mexican Open	Hard	2R	7–5, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)	125

References

External links

• Taro Daniel at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Taro Daniel at the International Tennis Federation
• Taro Daniel at the Davis Cup