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Masanosuke Fukuda

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Bio He was a Japanese male tennis player who represented Japan in the Davis Cup and Olympic Games. He is the first men's singles winner of the All Japan Tennis Championships.
At Waseda University , the playground was rebuilt in September 1902, and part of it was owned by the Fukuda family, so Masanosuke enjoyed watching sports at the playground from an early age. He was a baseball member when he was at Totsuka Mutsui Elementary School (now Totsuka Daiichi Elementary School), but started playing tennis at the age of 13 in 1910 when he entered Waseda Junior High School. When Fukuda was 16 years old, Keio University tennis club announced in 1913 that he would switch to tennis, but Waseda University tennis club was initially reluctant to play tennis.
Mikami Hachishiro (1887 - 1919) did not respond to persuasion. After the death of Mikami, Waseda University decided to adopt hard tennis in 1920. After graduating from Waseda University's Faculty of Commerce, Fukuda became a tennis player in 1921 when he was 24 years old, and began participating in hard court tournaments.

The "Japan Garden Ball Association" was established in March 1922, and the first "All Japan Garden Ball Championship" was held at the "Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club" in June. Fukuda beating Buichi Harada of Keio University in the fourth round 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, then in the 5th, he won 6-1. He collected 2 more matches, thus he became the champion of the 1st All Japan Tennis Championships in the men's singles. The winning cup at that time was called the "New York Kagekidan" and was given to the Japan Garden Ball Association by the "Japan Club" in New York. With the worldwide success of Ichiya Kumagae and Zenzo Shimizu, who were the pioneers of tennis players, the Japanese tennis world at that time was beginning to show its first excitement.

In 1923, the year after winning the men's singles in the 1st All Japan Championship , Fukuda was selected for the first time as a Japanese national team player in the men's tennis national competition, the Davis Cup . Two years ago, in 1921, Japan suddenly advanced to the "World Group Challenge Round" final with its first participation in the Davis Cup, but in 1922 both Kumagai and Shimizu were unable to participate in the Davis Cup and abstained from the first match. At the Davis Cup in 1923, Fukuda played an active part as a Japanese national team player with Zenzo Shimizu and Seiichiro Kashio . "American zone" in the first round they beat Canada 5-0, but in the final Japan lost against Australia 4-1, Fukuda lost both singles matches (against James Anderson and John Hawkes). In 1923, he intended to participate at US National Championship for the first time, however upon receiving the news of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Shimizu, Kashio, and Fukuda abstained from the tournament and held an exhibition match to solicit donations. It was around that time that Fukuda decided to change his grip (how to grip the racket) from " Western grip " to " Eastern grip ".

In 1924, the Japan Tennis Association was officially admitted to the "International Lawn Tennis Federation" headquartered in Paris , France , and Fukuda made his first expedition to Europe. In his first appearance at the Wimbledon Championship, he lost to Sydney Jacob of India 0-6, 2-6, 4-6 in the third round. This was his only participation at the Wimbledon Championship. After that, Fukuda also participated in the Paris Olympics as a member of the Japanese national team player, but lost to France national team member Henri Cochet 2-6, 1-6, 3-6 in the 4th round, and ended up losing the 2nd round in the doubles. At his second US Championshi, Fukuda was eliminated in the third round. Fukuda returns to Japan after his final participation in the 1925 Davis Cup and the US National Championships. His last overseas match ended in the first round of the US Championship. Fukuda lost from Howard Kinsey, although he took the first set from the US player, after all he lost 2-6, 0-6, 4-6, and was eliminated.

During the overseas expedition, Fukuda continued to send local reports to the " Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun " (now the Mainichi Shimbun ), and the article was serialized under his nickname "Maa-chan Tsushin." In this way, Fukuda gained fame as a sports reporter, and at the same time, many valuable materials were left about Fukuda himself and his contemporary tennis.

On October 25, 1926, Masanosuke Fukuda married Tomiko Tamura, an excellent female tennis player at the time. After that, he was involved in the management of tennis tournaments and writing activities such as sports reporters. The famous "Garden Ball Lesson", which describes the "heart to play the garden ball," was given to one of the members of the Waseda University garden ball club in 1941. In 1959 , Fukuda oversaw the Japanese team at the Davis Cup. Received the Order of the Sacred Treasure of the Fourth Prize in 1968. He continued his tennis-related writing activities until his last years, but died suddenly at the age of 77 on December 21, 1974 due to cardiac asthma.

In 1922, he was the winner of the 1st All Japan championship in singles, in 1927 in doubles.
He competed in the singles event at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, reaching the fourth round in which he lost to Henri Cochet. With compatriot Asaji Honda he competed in the men's doubles event and reached the second round.

He competed in the 1924 Wimbledon Championships and reached the third round in the singles event and the second round in the doubles.

In the Davis Cup, he had 5 participation (1923,1925), 2/3 in singles.
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