Japanese Tennis Star Nishikori Announces Retirement

Tokyo, May 1 (Jiji Press)–Japanese professional tennis star Kei Nishikori said on social media Friday that he will retire from competition at the end of this season. Nishikori, 36, who was formerly ranked fourth in the world in men’s tennis singles and has won 12 tour titles, a record high for any Japanese tennis player, has been suffering from injuries in recent years. “Looking back on everything up to this point, I can proudly say that I gave it my all,” he said in a post. A native of Shimane Prefecture, western Japan, Nishikori started playing tennis at age 5 and joined IMG Academy, a world-famous boarding school and sports training facility, in Florida at age 13. He became a professional player in 2007 and won his first tour title at the 2008 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships when he was 18. With his signature “Air K” shot, unleashed from a high point during jumping, Nishikori set many records as a Japanese tennis player. In May 2014, he made it to the world’s top 10 rankings for the first time as a Japanese male player. At the U.S. Open the same year, he became the first Japanese player to reach the singles final at any of the four Grand Slam tournaments. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, Nishikori won a bronze medal, Japan’s first Olympic medal in tennis in 96 years. He suffered from injuries throughout his career, including a stress fracture in the right elbow that required surgery. Nishikori was unable to play in 2022 and dropped out of the world rankings. But he returned to competition in 2023. He participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics and secured second place at the Hong Kong Open in January 2025, returning to the top 100. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]