Ayako Matsui heard about blind tennis in 2000 when she worked at a school for the blind and the visually impaired in Saitama, near Tokyo. Miyoshi Takei invented blind tennis at school in 1984 when he was just 16 years old. Ayako has loved playing tennis since she was a junior student in high school and blind tennis inspired her. In 2003, she established a club to teach tennis to visually impaired children.

One day, Ayako read a book titled ‘blindness’. It mentioned that ‘tennis is impossible for the blind’. She knew tennis was possible for people with  Then she decided to spread blind tennis internationally. 

She met Mr Takei in 2006, and they both worked for the Japan Blind Tennis Federation (JBTF) to help spread blind tennis all over Japan. They also traveled together to England, Korea, Taiwan and China to promote the sport. She visited England twice, meeting with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Tennis Foundation. In January 2007, Ayako traveled with other blind tennis players for the inaugural blind tennis event in England. She organized a demonstration match in London and played with Robert Kershaw who was partially sighted.

Sadly, Mr Takei passed away in 2011 at the age of 43. He dreamed that blind tennis would be nominated a Paralympic sport one day. Ayako supported several countries to start blind tennis projects and wrote the first technical manual. Ayako was appointed a special advisor to the IBTA in 2014 at the first IBTA congress in Texas, USA. Since then, she has been working to fulfill Mr Takei’s dream and continue his legacy.