Masanosuke Fukuda

Masanosuke Fukuda played singles and doubles at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He played Wimbledon once, in 1924, losing in the third round of singles and second round of doubles. Fukuda played Davis Cup for Japan from 1923-25, appearing in four ties, winning two matches and losing three. He also played at the US Championships from 1923-25, making the third round of singles in 1924.

Because part of the sports grounds of Waseda University were owned by the Fukuda family, Fukuda enjoyed sports from a very young age. He started playing tennis at the age of 13 when he entered high school in 1910. But it was not before 1920 that Waseda and Fukuda switched to the Western type of “hard tennis”. At the first All-Japan Tennis Championships in 1922, Fukuda defeated Takeichi Harada in the fourth round, eventually winning the tournament. This earned him a place on the Japanese Davis Cup team in the following year. Japan lost to Australia 4-1 in the final. Fukuda then decided to change from a Western grip to the Eastern grip. After playing overseas until 1925, he returned to Japan.

During his time on the tour, Fukuda continuously sent reports to the Tokyo newspaper Nichiichi Shimbun (now Mainichi Shimbun), which gained him some fame as a sports reporter. In 1926, he married Fumiko Tamura, who won the ladies doubles at the 1923 Far Eastern Games. Later he continued to work as a sports journalist and organized tennis tournaments. In 1959, Fukuda coached the Japanese team in the Davis Cup.