With Naomi Osaka enjoying a breakthrough campaign in 2018 and Kei Nishikori making a strong comeback from a career-threatening injury, the past season proved fruitful for emerging tennis powerhouse Japan.Osaka started 2018 at No. 68 in the WTA rankings but saw a dramatic rise to fourth in the world -- tying the all-time record for the highest-ranked Japanese player, male or female -- in October.She won the first title of her budding WTA career at the BNP Paribas Open in March, defeating former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova and current No. 1 Simona Halep along the way. And just days later at t…READ FULL ARTICLE