Kei Nishikori hit with brutal luck again, forced to skip upcoming Masters tournament

• Tennis News
• ATP Tennis

Kei Nishikori won't be making his Masters 1000 return next week after withdrawing from Toronto. Nishikori, who returned to tennis in June after being sidelined since 2021 October, competed in Atlanta last week - where he reached the quarterfinal but also suffered a knee injury.

As a result, Nishikori withdrew from this week's ATP 500 event in Washington. After withdrawing from Washington, Nishikori is also out of the Toronto Masters - where he was hoping to play his first Masters tournament in nearly two years.

Kei Nishikori sadly withdraws from Toronto, where he would return to the ATP Masters 1000 tournamets.

After 18 months out, cameback on tour with a 10-3 record, including a Challenger title and an ATP QF, but felt his left knee in Atlanta.

Hope it's nothing too serious...

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) August 4, 2023

At the National Bank Open - which one year takes place in Toronto and the other in Montreal - Nishikori has made eight main draw appearances. Nishikori's best result at the National Bank Open came in 2016 when he made the Toronto final before losing to Novak Djokovic.

Nishikori suffers a setback again

After undergoing hip surgery in 2022 January, Nishikori suffered an ankle injury just as he was preparing to return to tennis in the summer of 2022 and that delayed his comeback for another year.

After playing in three Challenger tournaments, Nishikori made his ATP return last week in Atlanta. ”I was having knee pain left from last week and it got a little bit worse after [my] first match last week. I was trying to play a couple more matches.

It was okay, but hurting more, more and more. So I tried to play today, but I was not good enough to play. So unfortunately, I have to withdraw. I’m very disappointed because I always play good here. Good memories and good crowd.

I always enjoy playing this week. But this is what it is, and I've got to keep climbing because I just started playing again and I know my body is not 100 per cent strong enough to play many matches. I think these things happen [the] first couple months [back], but big tournaments are coming up.

So I [will try to] to be ready for that," Nishikori said in a statement when announcing his withdrawal from Washington.