Giai Tennis US Open
Samantha Stosur, who two years later would triumph at the US Open, captured the inaugural edition in 2009 and became the tournament's first two-time champion in 2013 and three-time champion in 2014. The event made headlines in 2010 for featuring the oldest-known final in WTA history, with then-33-year-old Tamarine Tanasugarn beating 40-year-old Japanese native Kimiko Date-Krumm. And at the 2012 staging, Heather Watson became the first British WTA titlist since Sara Gomer won Aptos in 1988.
A significant cultural center located in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu and its third-largest city by population, Osaka functions as one of the country's economic command hubs.