Japan’s Kei Nishikori admits that his body is having a ‘tough reaction’ to training on the court after being stuck inside his room.
The former US Open finalist was one of 72 players who had to spend their 14-day Australian quarantine in their rooms after being declared a contact of somebody who had tested positive for COVID-19. A series of positive tests were detected on flights entering the country. A far from ideal situation for Nishikori who hasn’t played on the Tour since the French Open during what was another injury-stricken 2020 season for him.
After two weeks confined to his room, the 31-year-old admits that his body is taking a while to adjust on the practice court ahead of the ATP Cup. It will be the first time he has played in the team competition and will be hoping to improve on Japan’s performance last year where they finished second in their group.
“I am new to this tournament, so I’m a little bit leery. I don’t know how it’s going to be. I just try to play my best tennis,” said Nishikori.
“I feel okay after being two weeks in a room. It is obviously not easy. My body is reacting very tough, everything is very sore. But I still have two more days, so I should be okay.”
Nishikori and his team will be guided in the tournament by captain Max Mirnyi. A former world No.1 doubles player from Belarus who is also a current coach of the Japanese player. Mirnyi admits that there is some uncertainty about how things will hold up over the coming days following their strict quarantine.
“But being in the room and not being able to be outside doing exercise and breathing fresh air, we don’t know how the body will react,” he commented.
“Obviously it’s a big challenge. We did I think the maximum we could do being in a room environment, which Tennis Australia provided pretty much anything the players have asked for.’
“There was a lot of physical activity going on. My room was next to Kei’s room. I could see there was a lot of medicine ball activity, weights, running and jumping. There is only so much you can do in a room.’
“It’s challenging now that we’ve been out of the room. First couple practices outside have been quite difficult with just having to breathe in all the air and move, looking at the bright sun of Melbourne.”
Nishikori’s first taste of the ATP Cup will be on Wednesday when his team faces a tricky task against the Russian duo of Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. Each tie will consist of two singles matches, as well as one doubles. Later in the week Japan will also play Argentina.
