Kei Nishikori announces more unfortunate news ahead of US Open

• Tennis News
• ATP Tennis

Kei Nishikori has announced that he is forced to miss next week's Stanford Challenger because his knee hasn't healed fully yet. Nishikori, who returned to tennis in June after being out for 20 months, suffered a knee injury two weeks ago at the Atlanta Open.

Because of the injury, Nishikori was forced to miss last week's Citi Open in Washington and this week's Toronto Masters. Unfortunately for Nishikori, he will also be missing a third consecutive tournament next week. "Unfortunately will not be able to play the Stanford Challenger next week.

My knee is not 100% healed yet. I want to thank the tournament for the offer and I will continue to work hard to get back on tour," Nishikori announced.

Unfortunately will not be able to play the Stanford Challenger next week.

My knee is not 100% healed yet. I want to thank the tournament for the offer and I will continue to work hard to get back on tour. — Kei Nishikori (@keinishikori) August 11, 2023

Nishikori suffered a setback just after returning

After winning a Challenger tournament and appearing in two more Challenger tournaments, Nishikori made his return to the ATP level in late July at the Atlanta Open.

In Atlanta, Nishikori made a positive start and won his opening two matches before losing to world No 9 Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinal. After a positive Atlanta run, Nishikori revealed that he contracted a knee injury. ”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. It remains to be seen if Nishikori will be able to compete at the US Open.