Kunimitsu Tezuka
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Kunimitsu Tezuka
Kunimitsu Tezuka (手塚国光 Tezuka Kunimitsu) is a fictional character in the anime and manga The Prince of Tennis.
Tezuka is the captain of the tennis club and a third year student at Seishun Academy Middle School, or Seigaku for short. He is an incredibly talented player who is one of the only tennis players to ever beat Ryoma Echizen in singles, and he went to Nationals the year before the series takes place. Always serious about anything he does, he can most often be heard saying "20 laps around the courts". His special tennis attacks include his famous drop shot "zero-shiki" that lands on the ground then immediately rolls back, and his "Tezuka Zone". The latter technique allows him to completely control the spin on the ball so that no matter where his opponent hits the ball, it always returns directly to him. Tezuka only needs to pivot on one foot to return the ball when using "Tezuka Zone." Last but not least his No-touch-ace serve, as indicated by the name a fast and extremely powerful serve.
As a first-year student, he was very much like Ryoma Echizen. Tezuka was seen as overconfident and arrogant by the upperclassmen at Seigaku, especially when they discovered that he was left-handed though he played with his right. A jealous teammate then injures Tezuka's left arm, leading to chronic problems. By his third year, it is mostly healed, but the doctor still warns Tezuka against long matches and using his drop shot. Tezuka considers his health secondary to the team's success, and reinjures his arm in a grueling tie-break match against Atobe from Hyotei. He is sent to a health clinic in Kyushu in the manga, and in the anime, a health clinic in Germany, where he hopes to recuperate in order to play at Nationals.
Tezuka shows a strong interest in Ryoma Echizen, possibly because Echizen reminds him of himself as a first-year. He plays against Echizen full-strength in order to convince him that he needs to become better than a clone of his father. He hopes that Echizen will become Seigaku's pillar of support, a function that Tezuka currently acts as.