The 1997 Japan Open Tennis Championships was a tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the Ariake Coliseum

Ariake Coliseum

is an indoor sporting arena in located in Ariake, Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan. It has a capacity of 10,000. The arena is used as the center court for the Japan Open Tennis Championships and the Toray Pan Pacific Open held in Ariake Tennis Forest Park....

 in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 that was part of the Championship Series

ATP International Series Gold

International Series Gold was a series of professional tennis tournaments held internationally that were part of the ATP Tour. International Series Gold offered players cash prizes and the ability to earn ATP ranking points...

 of the 1997 ATP Tour

1997 ATP Tour

The ATP Tour is the elite tour for professional tennis organised by the ATP. The ATP Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Tennis Masters Cup, the ATP Masters Series, the International Series Gold and the International Series tournaments.-Schedule:...

 and of Tier III

WTA Tier III Events

The WTA Tier III tournaments were Women's Tennis Association tennis third-level tournaments held from 1988 to 2008. The line-up of events varied over the years due to tournaments being promoted, demoted or cancelled...

 of the 1997 WTA Tour

1997 WTA Tour

The WTA Tour is the elite tour for professional women's tennis organised by the Women's Tennis Association . The WTA Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV events...

. The tournament was held from April 14 through April 21, 1997.

Men's Singles

  Richard Krajicek

Richard Krajicek

Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek is a Dutch former professional tennis player. In 1996 he won the men's singles title at Wimbledon, the only Dutch player to have done so. In the quarterfinals of that tournament he defeated Pete Sampras. This was Sampras' only singles defeat at Wimbledon between...

defeated   Lionel Roux

Lionel Roux

Lionel Roux is a former tennis player from France, who turned professional in 1991. He was French National Junior champion in 1991, but didn't win a single title during his pro career...

 6–2, 3–6, 6–1

• It was Krajicek's 2nd title of the year and the 15th of his career.

Women's Singles

  Ai Sugiyama

Ai Sugiyama

is a retired Japanese professional tennis player. She reached No. 1 in women's doubles on the WTA Tour. Her career-high singles ranking was No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. She turned professional in 1992...

defeated   Amy Frazier

Amy Frazier

Amy Frazier is a now inactive professional female tennis player from the United States.She debuted in 1987 and was active player until the 2006 US Open in which she made her 20th consecutive appearance...

 4–6, 6–4, 6–4

• It was Sugiyama's 1st title of the year and the 4th of her career.

Men's Doubles

  Martin Damm

Martin Damm

Martin Damm was a professional tennis player from Czechia. He is 6'2" 195 lb and is best known as a doubles player . ,his highest singles ranking 42 as of August 1997...

/   Daniel Vacek

Daniel Vacek

Daniel Vacek is a former tennis player from Czechoslovakia and the Czechia who turned professional in 1990.Vacek represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was defeated in the second round...

defeated   Justin Gimelstob

Justin Gimelstob

Justin Jeremy Gimelstob is a retired American tennis player. Gimelstob has been a resident of Morristown, New Jersey and as of 2009 resided in Santa Monica, California....

 /   Patrick Rafter

Patrick Rafter

Patrick "Pat" Michael Rafter is an Australian former World No. 1 tennis player. He twice won the men's singles title at the US Open and was twice the runner-up at Wimbledon. Rafter was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006. He was known for his natural serve-and-volley style of...

 2–6, 6–2, 7–6

• It was Damm's 2nd title of the year and the 10th of his career. It was Vacek's 2nd title of the year and the 16th of his career.

Women's Doubles

  Alexia Dechaume-Balleret

Alexia Dechaume-Balleret

Alexia Dechaume-Balleret is a former professional tennis player from France. She reached her career high singles ranking of No. 46 in the world on August 17, 1992....

/   Rika Hiraki

Rika Hiraki

Rika Hiraki is a former professional Japanese female tennis player.She has won 1 Grand Slam mixed doubles title, the 1997 French Open .-Doubles :*1991: Puerto Rico *1992: Tokyo [Japan Open]...

defeated   Kerry-Anne Guse

Kerry-Anne Guse

Kerry-Anne Guse is an Australian tennis player. She was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and turned pro at the age of 15.-Doubles 13 :-References:...

 /   Corina Morariu

Corina Morariu

Corina Marie Morariu is a former American female professional tennis player of Romanian heritage.Morariu turned professional in 1994. Mainly known as a doubles specialist, she won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1999 with Lindsay Davenport. She also won the mixed doubles title at the...

6–4, 6–2

• It was Dechaume-Balleret's only title of the year and the 6th of her career. It was Hiraki's 2nd title of the year and the 5th of her career.

External links

• ATP Tournament Profile