“I still wish I could continue”: Kei Nishikori, the man who put Asian tennis on the Grand Slam map, to retire at season’s end
The first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam final is calling time. Kei Nishikori, the 2014 US Open finalist, Rio 2016 bronze medallist and former world No. 4, announced on Thursday that he will retire at the end of 2026. “I still wish I could continue my playing career,” the 36-year-old said. “Even so, I can proudly say that I gave it my all.”
Kei Nishikori, 2014 | © TennisMag / PsNewz
Kei Nishikori, the first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the open era (US Open 2014), announced on Thursday that he will retire from professional tennis at the end of the 2026 season, closing a career that took the 36-year-old Japanese to a career-high world No. 4 and 12 ATP titles before injuries hollowed out his final years on tour.
“Today, I have an announcement,” Nishikori wrote in a statement posted on Instagram and X in Japanese and English. “I have decided to retire from professional tennis at the end of this season.”
The decision did not come easily. “To be honest, I still wish I could continue my playing career,” he said. “Even so, looking back on everything up to this point, I can proudly say that I gave it my all. I am truly happy to have walked this path.”
A trailblazer for his country and his continent
Nishikori turned professional in 2007 and won his first ATP title a year later at Delray Beach as an unseeded teenager. The breakthrough came in 2014, at 24: a run to the Madrid Open final, then, as the No. 10 seed at the US Open, a four-set semi-final upset of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic that carried him to the Flushing Meadows final, where he lost to Croatia’s Marin Cilic.
He became the first Asian man ever to contest a Grand Slam singles final in the open era. He climbed to world No. 4 the following year, the highest ranking ever reached by a Japanese man.
The 12 ATP titles include two on home soil at the Japan Open, in 2012 and 2014, and a final trophy at the 2019 Brisbane International, where he beat Daniil Medvedev. At Rio 2016 he beat Rafael Nadal in the bronze-medal match to become the first Japanese man in 96 years to reach the tennis podium at the Olympic Games.
Against the era’s dominant trio of Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic he finished with a record of seven wins and 40 losses, a line that captures both the level he reached and the ceiling he could not break.
A career hollowed out by injury
The body that carried him there did not hold. A wrist injury in 2017 ended his season and dropped him out of the top 20. Recently, he missed the 2025 US Open and was absent from this year’s Australian Open in January with right shoulder pain. He told reporters last month that he was “barely hanging on” physically. He is currently ranked 464.
The current season has been a Challenger-level grind. Nishikori opened the year in Canberra in January and retired against Czech Vit Kopriva in the first round. He returned at Thionville in March, where he came through qualifying to win two main-draw matches before losing in the round of 16 to Norwegian Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, then fell in the opening round at Cherbourg to Frenchman Clement Tabur.
Two clay-court swings in the United States followed: a second-round exit at Sarasota at the start of April to China’s Yibing Wu, and his most recent outing at Savannah, where he beat American Coleman Smith before falling to compatriot Jenson Kennedy, ranked 582nd. He carries a 4-5 record into retirement and sits at No. 464 in the world.
“There were also times when I was overwhelmed by frustration and anxiety due to repeated injuries that prevented me from playing as I wanted,” Nishikori said. “Even so, my love for tennis and my belief that I could become a stronger player always brought me back to the court.”
Nishikori thanked his family and his supporters in the same statement, and signed off with a promise to compete to the last point. “I will cherish every moment of the remaining matches and fight to the very end.”
A retirement class of 2026
Nishikori joins a swelling roster of familiar names ending their careers this year, with Stan Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, David Goffin and Roberto Bautista Agut all set to retire at season’s end. The class of 2026 will take with it a generation that grew up chasing the Big Three.
His final tournament has not been formally confirmed. A previous report tying his farewell to the ATP Challenger 75 in Sarasota, where he trained as a junior at the IMG Academy in nearby Bradenton, was denied by the player himself last month. An update on his schedule, he said at the time, would come “in the near future.”
For now, the only fixed point is the date: the end of 2026.
