Miyu Kato

Miyu Kato (; born 21 November 1994) is a Japanese professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. She reached career-high WTA rankings of world No. 26 in doubles on 1 January 2024 and No. 122 in singles on 15 January 2018. Kato has won six doubles titles on the WTA Tour and three at WTA 125 level. She has also won four singles and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. In mixed doubles, she won the 2023 French Open with Germany's Tim Pütz, her first Grand Slam title.

Three of Kato's six WTA Tour doubles titles were won with Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi: at Auckland and Cleveland in 2023, and Hua Hin in 2024. In 2025, Kato reached the women's doubles finals at two WTA 1000 events: the 2025 Miami Open with Cristina Bucșa and the 2025 China Open with Fanny Stollár.

Representing Japan, she won the bronze medal in women's doubles at the 2018 Asian Games with Makoto Ninomiya and has represented her country in the Billie Jean King Cup.

Career 2023 : Mixed doubles champion, Elite Trophy Kato won her major title in the mixed doubles at the 2023 French Open, together with her German partner Tim Pütz.

She reached a new career-high ranking of No. 27 on 23 October 2023, the week she was selected to participate in the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy with Aldila Sutjiadi.

French Open controversy At the 2023 French Open, she and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted in the women's doubles, after she accidentally hit a ball girl with a ball. She had to forfeit her points and prize money, although she made clear she would appeal the supervisor's decision. Kato received ample support from fellow players, including from the Professional Tennis Players Association, who deemed the disqualification unfair. Kato and Sutjiadi's opponents, Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzková, were criticized for pushing the supervisor to disqualify Kato and laughing after the pair were disqualified, but did not apologize to Kato.

2024-2025: WTA 1000 finals in Miami and Beijing Kato and Sutjiadi won the doubles title at the 2024 Thailand Open, defeating Guo Hanyu and Jiang Xinyu in the final.

In March 2025, with new partner Cristina Bucșa, Kato reached the doubles final of the WTA 1000 Miami Open with an upset over the top seeds and world No. 1 and No. 2 players, Kateřina Siniaková and Taylor Townsend. They lost the championship match to Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.

Teaming up with Fanny Stollár, she reached another WTA 1000 final at the 2025 China Open, losing to second seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in a champions tiebreak.

Personal life and background Kato has one brother named Yuki. She started playing tennis at the age of eight. She has stated that her tennis idols growing up were Justine Henin and Roger Federer. Her favorite surface is hardcourt, but her favorite tournament is Wimbledon.

Performance timelines

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records and career statistics.

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals Mixed doubles: 1 (title)

Other significant finals WTA Elite Trophy Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA 1000 tournaments Doubles: 2 (runner-ups)

WTA Tour finals Singles: 1 (runner-up) LegendWTA 250 (0–1)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1) ResultDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss Japan Women's Open, Japan International Hard Zarina Diyas 2–6, 5–7

Doubles: 18 (6 titles, 12 runner-ups) LegendWTA 1000 (0–2)WTA 500 (1–1)Elite Trophy (0–1)WTA 250 (5–8)Finals by surfaceHard (6–10)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–1)

WTA 125 finals Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups) Legend$60,000 tournaments (1–0)$25,000 tournaments (3–3)$10,000 tournaments (0–1)Finals by surfaceHard (2–3)Clay (1–0)Grass (1–1)

Doubles: 26 (13 titles, 13 runner-ups) Legend$100,000 tournaments (1–2)$75/80,000 tournaments (2–0)$50/60,000 tournaments (0–3)$25,000 tournaments (5–1)$10/15,000 tournaments (5–7)Finals by surfaceHard (7–6)Clay (2–6)Grass (2–0)Carpet (2–1)

Junior Grand Slam tournament final Girls' doubles: 1 (runner-up) ResultYearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2011 Australian Open Hard Eri Hozumi Demi Schuurs An-Sophie Mestach 2–6, 3–6