Kei Nishikori has shared that he plans to “reinvent himself” and add something new to his game but noted that he is not planning to drastically change his playing style. Nishikori, 33, was out for 20 months before returning to action in June.
Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up and a former world No 4, was regarded as one of the best players in the game for many years. But now, Nishikori is 33 and he has just gotten back to tennis after being sidelined for nearly two years.
“I’m not just trying to return to my former self… it’s difficult to say, but on the other hand, sometimes I want to play in the way I used to play, or watch videos of my past matches and feel like playing like this is the ideal for me.
I’m not gonna change my playing style drastically and actually, I think I can compete well against top players even with my former playing style, but I still have a lot to do to regain consistency, I also want to reinvent myself,” Nishikori told Japanese media.
I’m not gonna change my playing style drastically and actually I think I can compete well against top players even with my former playing style, but I still have a lot to do to regain consistency, I also want to reinvent myself.” — äºèå (@seiadoumogera) August 9, 2023
Nishikori played four tournaments, then suffered a setback
In early June, Nishikori made the best possible comeback as he won the Palmas del Mar Challenger.
After winning Palmas del Mar, Nishikori appeared in two more Challenger tournaments before making his ATP return in late July at the Atlanta Open. In Atlanta, Nishikori won his opening two matches before losing to Taylor Fritz.
After a positive week in Atlanta, Nishikori shared some unfortunate news at the start of last week as he was forced to withdraw from Washington due to knee pain. ”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,” Nishikori said in a statement.After withdrawing from Washington, Nishikori also skipped this week’s Toronto Masters.
