Women Who Serve: Akiko Morigami

Monday, October 12, 2009

Morigami to retire at end of season

Akiko Morigami has announced that she will retire from professional tennis at the end of the season. Morigami, who plays two-handed with both hands, has had problems with various injuries since early last year.

The 29-year-old Morigami won the Prague Open in 2007, and she was a finalist twice in Cincinnati. Morigami, who also has one Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles title (Memphis), was a member of the 2004 Japanese Olympic team, and a long-time member of Japan's Fed Cup team. She had a career-high ranking of number 41 in the world in 2005.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Chakvetadze wins in Cincinnati

Top seed Anna Chakvetadze beat Akiko Morigami in straight sets today to win the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati. Morigami was a finalist in 2005, also, when she was defeated by Patty Schnyder.

Final score: 6-1, 6-3.

About the blog author

Diane Elayne Dees is a writer, a retired psychotherapist, a former speech communication instructor, and a former public relations specialist. She is also a life-long fan of women's professional tennis.

For several years, Diane published the progressive blog, The Dees Diversion, and she also contributed regularly to the Mother Jones MoJo Blog. Diane has published political essays, short fiction and creative nonfiction. For the past several years, she has concentrated on writing poetry.

A nine-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Diane has published four poetry chapbooks, Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books), The Last Time I Saw You, (Finishing Line Press), The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press), and I Can't Recall Exactly When I Died (Kelsay Books). (See ordering information at the top of the page.)

She has also published four microchaps with the Origami Poems Project: Beach Days, Pandemic Times, Missing Amy, and Yogic Truth. Her nature poetry was read on Martha Stewart Living Radio's "The Naturalist's Datebook."