Kei Nishikori’s return to the main stage of tennis is continuing to gain momentum after he sealed his place in the quarter-finals of the Atlanta Open.
The former world No.4 followed up on his win over Jordan Thompson earlier this week by defeating China’s Shang Juncheng 6-4, 7-6(3), on Thursday. Nishikori’s latest performance saw him win 78% of his first service points and hit 14 winners. He has now won 287 Tour-level matches on a hardcourt in his career.
“It was a tough battle, but I was very excited on the court,” the ATP website quoted Nishikori as saying during his on-court interview. “I felt pretty good, especially playing under [the lights]. I felt very good on the court today.”
Nishikori is playing in his first ATP Tour event since October 2021 due to injury. He missed all of 2022 due to hip surgery and then had to delay his return to competition this season after sustaining an ankle injury that turned out to be more serious than first thought. During his hiatus, the Japanese player admitted that he contemplated retiring from the sport.
Nevertheless, he has chosen to continue playing and it appears that he is heading in the right direction. Prior to Atlanta, he played on the lower-level Challenger Tour where he won a title in Puerto Rico last month.
“It’s always tough coming back from injury, I was out for almost two years,” Nishikori said. “I just came back, played the last couple tournaments and coming into here, I’m feeling pretty good. Luckily I won two rounds here and I’m happy to play another one tomorrow.”
The next test for the 33-year-old will be a clash with top seed Taylor Fritz. The world No.9 defeated Yibing Wu 6-4, 7-6(5), in his second round match. Fritz has had a frustrating time on the Tour in recent weeks after failing to win back-to-back matches at his five previous tournaments. He will end this streak if he beats Nishikori on Friday in Atlanta.
“It could have gone either way, I kind of just barely got out of the points I needed to win,” Fritz commented on his latest win.
Nishikori currently leads Fritz 3-0 in their head-to-head but they haven’t played against each other since 2019. He is yet to drop a set against the American.