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Lily Miyazaki: Britain’s new US Open match-winner follows in Emma Raducanu footsteps
Japan-born Briton grew up in Switzerland before moving to London where, from the age of 13, she represented Surrey
On Monday night Lily Miyazaki gave British tennis fans a faint hint of deja vu, becoming the first Briton since Emma Raducanu to win a US Open match after fighting her way through qualifying.
Two years ago, that marked the start of a remarkable title run by a teen newcomer. No one is expecting Miyazaki to emulate such a feat, but this first-round win is already her biggest career win.
Miyazaki is 27 years old, and her 6-3 6-3 victory over Margarita Betova was her first ever at a major.
When Raducanu reached the same stage in New York two years ago, she was just 18 and joked about buying a new set of AirPods with her winnings. On Monday after her own moment, Miyazaki recalled watching her compatriot’s US Open crowning from Leiria in Portugal, where she was playing an ITF 25k semi-final. Her total prize money was just £921.
Those years of experience make her understandably more attuned to the rigours of tour life than fresh-faced Raducanu was. Fellow Briton Emily Appleton has known Miyazaki since they were teenagers and often pairs up with her in doubles. She regularly bunks with her at second-tier events around the world and has seen the graft she has put in to get to this point in her career.
“She’s one of the hardest working people I know,” Appleton, who is ranked 378th in singles, told Telegraph Sport. “She’s so easy-going and just good company. She’s not afraid of hard work or travelling here, there and everywhere to try and get better and higher up the rankings. I’m just really happy now that it’s paid off. Last October and November we shared a room for a few weeks. We just have to hustle wherever we can to save money, to be honest.”
Miyazaki is well aware of the huge impact the £98,000 in prize money - which eclipses anything she has previously won at a tournament - could have in the next few months. “Financially, I’d say it’s difficult,” she said of life on the circuit. “Luckily I have had a couple of private sponsors as well. That’s helped.
“I was actually talking about it with Jodie [Burrage] earlier. Maybe now I can travel a bit more with a coach, things like that. Because when I’m playing at the ITF level I tend to travel on my own.”
Like British No 2 Burrage, Miyazaki is coached by Craig Veal, who she began working with as a teenager at Sutton Tennis Academy.
Despite her age, Miyazaki might be relatively unknown to British tennis followers due to her 199th ranking and the fact she only switched allegiance from Japan a year ago.
Born in Tokyo, she spent most of the first 10 years of her life in Zurich, Switzerland where she attended an international school. There was no keen sports pedigree in her family. Her mother Akiko is a former pianist who passed on that love for the arts to Miyazaki. But her father, Yoichi (who works in finance) did play tennis recreationally and planted the seed when Miyazaki was five years old.
When they moved to London, Miyazaki attended Emmanuel School in Battersea and Kingston’s Coombe Girls’ School, as well as continuing to work on her tennis, representing Surrey from the age of 13 at national tournaments.
“Lily’s always been around British tennis since she came to the UK when she was 10,” LTA head of women’s tennis Iain Bates said, speaking to Telegraph Sport from Flushing Meadows. “So when she approached me a couple of years ago feeling it was the right time to switch [to British representation] we were clearly delighted.”
Like Raducanu in 2021, Miyazaki faces Bencic
He says her success in New York is especially gratifying as she is proof women do not need to rush to go pro, instead choosing to attend the University of Oklahoma on a tennis scholarship. As well as gaining a maths degree and a masters in IT management, Miyazaki rose to the top 10 of the collegiate rankings.
That has not immediately translated to success on the WTA tour, though, where she has played fewer than 30 matches in her career. Most of her time is spent toiling away at second-tier events instead. It is why this US Open match-win marks a huge milestone and boosts her to a new career-high ranking of at least 153.
In an interesting quirk to the draw, like Raducanu in 2021, Miyazaki has a meeting with current Olympic champion and Swiss player Belinda Bencic next, her first against a top-20 opponent. Win or lose, the next year could already be boosted by simply having reached the second round.
“Everyone gravitates to the money thing, but for me that’s not even in the equation here,” Bates says. “There’s two key things for me. One is the belief. Winning matches at a grand slam should show you’re capable of playing at high levels. The second point is that it is huge for ranking. All of a sudden you can get yourself into bigger tournaments, and you can build on this now as the year goes on.”