Kei Nishikori Provides Crucial Update After Series Of Withdrawals

Thursday, 19 October 2023 at 19:30

byEvita Mueller

Kei Nishikori wasn't able to play in his home tournament at the 2023 Japan Open, but he's close to returning to tennis, which is only weeks away.

The Japanese player returned to tennis earlier this year after a long absence and actually won the challenger event where he returned. It was an amazing display of vintage Nishikori who once stood in the US Open final many years ago.

The Japanese player, however, saw his comeback cut short by a few disappointing injury setbacks, but he remained optimistic and continued working towards a comeback.

Unfortunately, it was not enough for him to play at the Japan Open, which is his home event; however, he is close to coming back, according to the man himself.

Nishikori sat down with the ATP during the Japan Open to talk about the event and his progress, noting that he's a couple of weeks away from a return.

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I feel like I'm almost there, to come back. I hope, a couple more weeks to go. Unfortunately, I could not play this week in Japan, but I'm doing rehab and doing training, and I hope I can come back soon.

— Nishikori on his comeback<br>

Nishikori further spoke about the event, expressing happiness about the amount of good players that opted to play in Tokyo, which is good for both the event and Japanese tennis. He always happily returns to the event, but this year, it simply didn't work out with the injury.

I think it's good that there is a very strong field this year, a lot of the top 20 players are playing. I think everybody is going to enjoy watching those guys. I have a good memory here, I won a couple of times and am always happy to play home and I feel a lot of support here so just unfortunate I couldn't play this week but I hope everyone enjoys watching these good players.