Aurélien CANOT, Media365, published on Thursday, November 24, 2022 at 9:42 p.m.
Absent from the courts for more than a year, Kei Nishikori (32), a time in depression, even thought of stopping his career a few months ago. However, the Japanese has just announced that he has a one in two chance of participating in the Australian Open next January.
Kei Nishikori (32) in contention at the next Australian Open? After having postponed his return to the courts on several occasions, the Japanese, absent in competition for more than a year now, could be there in Melbourne to play in the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. Nishikori, forced to have hip surgery last January after being sidelined for a long time by an injury to… a wrist, in fact hinted last weekend on the sidelines of an exhibition at which he participated at the invitation of one of his sponsors and alongside Roger Federer in particular, whom he could reconnect with tennis on the occasion of this event, in which he reached the quarter-finals four times but in which he had therefore missed the last edition. For the Japanese, who had exchanged a few balls in Tokyo with the now legendary Swiss neo-retiree, even confided that there was a one in two chance that he would play the Australian Open. “I still don’t know when I’m going to come back to the circuit. My goal is to play the Australian Open, my chances of doing that are 50% now,” said the Michael Chang protege, who would have liked to resume competition last October but has still not played since his elimination in the 2nd round in Indian Wells in October… 2021.
It was seeing Federer that Nishikori found the strength to carry on
By dint of taking his pain patiently and not seeing the path to the courts looming again, Nishikori had first suffered from depression, then thought of stopping everything. To hear it, it is this same Federer whose path he crossed this weekend on his land and who pushed his career up to 41 years old who unwittingly made him want not to hang up. “I have been very depressed for the last few months, I even thought about retiring (…) Seeing Roger, I finally thought that I could continue playing tennis beyond 30 years old.” If the Japanese is indeed one of the registered in Melbourne in January, he will necessarily have a strong thought for the Swiss.
