Nishikori Ends Career in Tokyo

Kei Nishikori’s professional tennis career ended on Thursday, 1 October, at the Japan Open in Tokyo when second seed Frances Tiafoe beat him 6⁠–⁠4, 6⁠–⁠4 in the first round (ESPN; BBC Sport; ATP Tour). The 36-year-old former world No. 4 and 2014 US Open finalist had said he would retire at year’s end and took a wild-card entry for a final home event at the tournament he won in 2012 and 2014 (ESPN; ATP Tour). After the match he told the crowd he kept fighting to the end, then took a lap of honour on the show court; a video tribute included Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray (BBC Sport).

The Japan Open is an ATP 500 hard-court event — a mid-tier week on the Association of Tennis Professionals calendar, one rung below the Masters 1000 tournaments and well below the four Grand Slams. Outdoor hard courts are paved acrylic surfaces, typically faster than clay. A wild card is a special entry granted outside the usual ranking cut, used here so Nishikori could close his career at home (ATP Tour). Tiafoe, listed by BBC Sport as world No. 8, controlled both sets without needing a tiebreak — the first-to-seven shootout, win by two, when a set reaches six games each (BBC Sport).

Nishikori announced in the spring that he planned to retire at the end of the year; ESPN reported he had mixed feelings earlier in the week about playing his last elite-level tournament on home soil, saying he was excited to play in Japan but knew it was his last moment (ESPN). Injuries had limited him in recent seasons, including a missed Australian Open in 2026 with right shoulder pain and a missed US Open in 2025 (ESPN). Across 19 years he won 12 ATP Tour singles titles, became the first Japanese man to reach a Grand Slam singles final and the top 10, and held a 72.5 percent deciding-set win rate — third in ATP Tour history behind Bjorn Borg (73.4 percent) and John McEnroe (72.8 percent) (BBC Sport; ATP Tour).

His career peak came in 2014, when he went 54⁠–⁠14, won four titles, and reached the US Open final. On that New York run he survived five-set matches against Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka, then upset then–world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in four sets in the semi-finals before losing the final in straight sets to Marin Cilic (BBC Sport; ATP Tour). By March 2015 he had climbed to a career-high No. 4, still the highest ranking achieved by an Asian man; he finished two seasons inside the top five and two more inside the top 10 (ATP Tour). He also beat Rafael Nadal for Olympic bronze at the 2016 Rio Games — Japan’s first Olympic tennis medal in 96 years — and reached the quarter-finals when the Olympics came to Tokyo in 2021 (ATP Tour).

BBC Sport paraphrased his post-match words to the Ariake crowd: he wished for a slightly more convincing performance, was happy he kept fighting right to the end, and was proud he did not give up. The tribute video also featured 1989 French Open winner Michael Chang; Djokovic praised Nishikori’s resilience and said he was glad the farewell came in Nishikori’s own country in front of his people (BBC Sport). ATP Tour credited him with 452 tour-level match wins, 40 victories over top-10 players, four Nitto ATP Finals appearances, and seven career wins against Roger Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic combined (ATP Tour).

Nishikori began playing at age five in Shimane, moved to Florida at 14 to train at IMG Academy without speaking English, and turned pro in 2007 (ATP Tour; BBC Sport). He inspired a generation of Japanese players, including four-time major champion Naomi Osaka and Next Gen star Rei Sakamoto, who has called him a lifelong idol (ATP Tour). In 2025, six years after his most recent ATP Tour title in Brisbane, he reached the Hong Kong final at 35, beating third seed Karen Khachanov along the way (ATP Tour). Thursday’s loss closed that path on the same Tokyo show court where he lifted the Japan Open trophy twice.