Gael Monfils and Kei Nishikori Withdraw From 2025 Italian Open in Rome

The field for the 2025 Italian Open was weakened by withdrawals of Gael Monfils and Kei Nishikori.

Monfils and Nishikori are among the most beloved players on the ATP Tour. They are both veterans of the sport, and they have both suffered plenty of injuries that have set back their tennis careers.

Despite all the setbacks, 38-year-old Monfils and 35-year-old Nishikori are still capable of challenging players more than a decade younger on the ATP Tour. They wanted to challenge a few of them also at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome, but that won't happen.

Nishikori was the first player to announce his withdrawal. The Japanese player competed at the Indian Wells Open this year, but he then missed the Miami Open and the Monte-Carlo Masters. However, when Nishikori returned to action at the Madrid Open, things were looking promising again.

He lost in the Spanish capital 1-6, 4-6 to Denis Shapovalov in the second round, and an easy loss might have been an indication that Nishikori was not 100% fit. He confirmed that by withdrawing from the Italian Open.

The 35-year-old has had great results in Rome before. He reached the quarter-finals in 2015, 2018, and 2019, losing to Novak Djokovic in two of those years. On top of that, he also reached the semi-finals in 2016, losing to Djokovic again.

Compared to Nishikori, Monfils has been much more active this year when it comes to big tournaments. In fact, he hasn't missed any big event, as he played at the Australian Open and all four ATP Masters 1000 events.

However, Monfils' last Masters experience ended with a withdrawal in Madrid. The Frenchman withdrew before his second-round match against Andrey Rublev, and he didn't manage to recover before heading to Rome.

Monfils previously didn't have as much success in Rome as Nishikori did. The French player reached the semi-finals on his debut in 2006, losing only to Rafael Nadal, but in the following editions, he never made it past the second round.

In fact, the Italian Open is by far Monfils' worst ATP Masters 1000 tournament. It's the only Masters event at which he has lost more matches than he managed to win, and if he is struggling with an injury, skipping it makes sense.

For both, the focus will now turn to the Roland Garros. For Monfils, it is his home Grand Slam tournament, so the Frenchman will certainly want to play in front of the home crowd at least one more time. At 38, any time can be the last time.

Nishikori, obviously, will also want to get properly healthy again to be able to restart his career as he wishes to.

The 2025 Roland Garros starts on May 25th, but both of these players might be in action already the week before. Monfils signed up to play in Hamburg, while Nishikori appears on the Geneva Open entry list.