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Akira Santillan - Now representing Japan!

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#1 ·
Akira "Aki" Santillan Cheering Thread

A talented young tennis player from the Gold Coast. Was born in Japan but has been representing Australia for years. At 15 years of age he won his first junior ITF title this month as well as qualifying for his first futures main draw this week at Traralgon.

I know he had an attitude on court back in the day but it seems he may have gotten more serious about his tennis. His nickname is Aki (pronounced are-key). His father also gives off a John Tomic vibe but is just doing what he can do get Aki to the pros. He trained at Bollettieri's Academy at a very young age (7 I think) and all around has had a breakout year in 2012.

Currently ranked 343 in the juniors and is likely to at least get a qualifying wildcard into the AO juniors next year. I can say from watching/coaching him personally he is a very talented kid but used to be unfocused and lazy. I hope he has changed because the talent is definitely there. Videos of him are all over YouTube and he has been ranked number 1 in his age group in Australia for quite a while now.

Really hard to tell how far he will actually go but given his break out this month I feel a thread is warranted.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Akira Santillan is one of the new kids on the block in Australian tennis. He was born 22 May 1997 in Tokyo, Japan and lived there until he was almost 9 years old. Since then he has been a resident of Queensland, firstly on the Gold Coast and now in Brisbane.

In 2013, he upset second seed Matt Reid in the first round of the Australian Open Wildcard Playoff and in 2014 he reached the French Open Boys Doubles final with Lucas Miedler of Austria.

According to his Tennis Australia profile, he is currently 176cm tall and coached by former pro Mark Draper.

He is currently in the Semi Final of the Australian Open Boys Singles.
 
#3 ·
Re: Akira Santillan - New Kid on the Block

The Australian Open app tells me he is 1.78m (5ft. 10in.) tall and weighs 76.4kg (168lbs). He has quite good power for his height and a silky motion for his service and groundstrokes. Sweet one handed backhand as well, a rarity in the younger generations these days so hope he breaks through.
 
#6 ·
Re: Akira Santillan - New Kid on the Block

The Australian Open app tells me he is 1.78m (5ft. 10in.) tall and weighs 76.4kg (168lbs). He has quite good power for his height and a silky motion for his service and groundstrokes. Sweet one handed backhand as well, a rarity in the younger generations these days so hope he breaks through.
Looks like a player I could like :p
I also hope he does well in the furure and we will be able to see him on the ATP tour. There is so few one-hander amoung juniors.
 
#7 ·
Re: Akira Santillan - New Kid on the Block

So reading about him he's another player who has struck trouble with tennis australia been suspended from the program and family wont send him back.

This is starting to become a theme from TA arguing with the players rather than an exception... You have to start asking if TA is not handling difficult situations with teenagers well.
 
#8 ·
Re: Akira Santillan - New Kid on the Block

So reading about him he's another player who has struck trouble with tennis australia been suspended from the program and family wont send him back.

This is starting to become a theme from TA arguing with the players rather than an exception... You have to start asking if TA is not handling difficult situations with teenagers well.
He's representing Japan instead of Australia now.
 
#16 ·
Just a case of TA have enough talented players that they are looking after and thus are not too cared about other "fringe" talented players, especially ones that seemingly won't toe the official line.
Sometimes it is better for that player to go out on their own or with a different plan, as what they will get from TA in that case is not something tailored to their game/style/requirements/ranking but just a tag along/fill-in program with TA, which just hinders their progress and fails to help them.

Good luck imo to Akira
 
#17 ·
I feel sad for you aussie fans that a thing like that happens. :awww:

Hopefully for Akira this will not disturb his development. Time will tell.

I'm not familiar with how TA is dealing with their youngsters, from what you say, you all seem to think something is wrong. :eek:
 
#19 ·
Very unfortunate news for the Aussies here... TA has lost a valuable asset no doubt here
On the bright side, I hope he makes the most of his opportunity with the JTA and ride the momentum with Nishikori and upcomers Nishioka and Nakagawa
 
#20 ·
Japan F3 Futures QF: Santillan df. Nakagawa 6-2 0-6 6-2, another up-and-coming Japanese youngster to make his first futures SF.

Will face unseeded Yong-Kyu Lim of South Korea who upset 2nd seed as well as defeating his countryman and another youngster in Seong Chan Hong.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Ended up losing the SF in a one-sided affair... But 1 month later, faced off again in the Thailand F1 SFs after qualifying into the draw and beat Lim convincingly 6-3 6-3! And today just beat 5th seeded Kento Takeuchi in the Finals 6-3 6-2 for his first futures title. Ranking will go up to 750ish I think and will be playing the Thailand F2 next week :worship:

 
#22 ·
Gets a SE into the main draw of Thailand F2 due to last weeks heroics, would've had to qualify again otherwise. Routs 5th-seeded Hiroki Kondo 6-1 6-2 and faces a straightforward match against a local wildcard. Will highly likely then face top seed Yong-Kyu Lim for the 3rd time this past month or so (H2H 1-1). Bottom draw has slightly collapsed with 2nd seed withdrawing and 3rd seed upset in the 1st round.
 
#23 · (Edited)
He beat the Thai WC convincingly 6-2 6-1, upsetted top seeded Lim 7-6(4) 6-3 again to lead their H2H 2-1, and then proceeded to beat 4th seeded ex-countryman O'Connell 6-3 3-6 6-2 in the SFs to make his second ITF Futures level final consecutively with last weeks win at Thailand F1. This is the first set lost in his 11-match winning streak and will face qualifier Andre Dome of the US in the final :cool:

There seems to be a huge wave of youngsters doing well at the moment in the 1997 to 1998 generation, hope Aki can get even more motivated from this.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Akira defeated in the final 4-6 7-6(7) 1-6 by Dome to snap his run. Just didn't win the bigger points, with BP conversion being 1/4 compared to Dome's 4/6. Good run for Dome who qualified; both will go into next weeks Thailand F3 (Aki should get an SE into main draw again) but not sure if Aki will have enough fuel after a sublime two weeks. Runner-up here will lift him to ~665 in the live rankings :cool:
 
#26 · (Edited)
So in the Thailand F3, made the QFs defeating a local Thai in the first round then upsetting 4th seed Mott 7-5 6-3. Had high hopes as the majority of the draw collapsed at this point but Aki lost to another local Thai Burapharitta 4-6 2-6. A tough but a breakthrough 3 to 4 weeks for Aki which has seen him fly from 1000+ to ~650 in the rankings!

Edit: Apparently he succumbed to cramps!
 
#29 · (Edited)
Akira has entered several more Thailand futures after Wimbledon Juniors, fairly average results with ranking still floating in the mid 600s. Lost to [1] Ti Chen in the QF in Thailand F6, who he is projected to meet in the Thailand F7 in the second round as well... Also teaming up with Ti Chen in doubles in the F7 and have beat the top seed there in the first round :cool:

Edit: Santillan lost 6-4 4-6 5-7, much closer than the match he had with Chen last time. Still in doubles with Chen, optimistic with his chances there.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Thought I would update Akira's progress... Has been in Spain since the beginning of the year under the guidance of Richi Sanchez of the Richi Tennis Academy, amassing a singles W/L record of 21-8 this year on a mixture of outdoors hard and clay ITF Pro Circuit tournaments. Won the Spain F7 against (1) Diez on outdoors hard. Notable wins over top 300 Diez, Ramirez-Hidalgo and De Greef. Currently hovering ~500 in rankings, he can go further up if he wins Spain F11 against (1) Escoffier today in the final.

On to great news, Santillan was granted WC into the qualifiers of Madrid Masters 1000, facing his first top 100 opponent (12) Youzhny. Don't think he has played above futures level with the exception of few challenger qualifiers and AO qualifier last year. However, he is scheduled to play in Madrid within 5 or so hours of the start of the final of Spain F11 in Mostoles. Not sure how things will pan out as although the tournaments are close to each other, Akira will need to transition quickly from hardcourt to clay...

Hoping for a win for Akira in the Spain F11 and a respectable showing in the Madrid Qualifiers.

Edit 1: Santillan lost to Escoffier 4-6 7-6(5) 3-6 in 2hrs 40mins, tough loss considering that Akira was the better player during the majority of the match by the stats, but somehow Escoffier always managed to have a lead. An MTO was taken during the middle of the 3rd set where Akira had the momentum, but that swung quickly to Escoffier. Hopefully that was not an MTO for Santillan, now only 2 hours to transition from hardcourt to clay.

Edit 2: Santillan lost to Youzhny 3-6 6-7(7), from the stats Akira didn't play the big points the best that he could. Solid experience for Santillan, hopefully starts transitioning into more challenger qualifiers soon.
 
#31 ·
Quick highlights clip of Santillan in Kofu F3 last year in March
 
#32 ·
Akira wins doubles title w/ Bourchier and in singles title at China F7 Futures at Wuhan. Defeated Yunseong Chung, another teenager that went out on a tear in the draw 6-1 6-4. Excellent week here, coincidentally his birthday was today on the 22nd May where he turns 19. What a way to celebrate his birthday! Will go on to play two more futures in China.

Current ATP ranking is around ~530 (career high was ~460) but now moves in the ATP race to ~280! Nice to see him moving up steadily. By the stats, his first serve is surprisingly effective for his height.
 
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