Nishikori Withdraws From Yet Another Event And Wraps Up His Injury-Plagued 2023 Season

Despite having high hopes of returning to tennis back home in Japan, Kei Nishikori abandoned plans to play in the Yokkaichi ATP Challenger event.

Nishikori has been battling injury setbacks for weeks now as he hoped to find some playing time before the end of the year. He actually made his comeback earlier this year, winning the ATP Challenger event he played upon return.

He also won his first ATP match at the Atlanta Open later, but since then, he largely struggled to remain in playing conditions as his injury curse continues to take its toll.

Rafael Nadal famously said that Nishikori would have been one of the best players of this decade had he been healthy, but unfortunately, he wasn't.

It's been a theme for much of his career, which is why he actually thought about giving up during his comeback earlier this year. He made it back and played well but now faces a similar challenge.

There was some hope that he would still play in 2023 after pulling out of the Japan Open. There was a series of challenger events in the country to finish off the year, and he hoped to take part in one of those.

The Yokkaichi Challenger is played this week, and he was set to make an appearance at the event but ultimately won't as he withdrew. It's become increasingly clear that he won't play at all this year.

Where that leaves the 33-year-old as far as his career goes remains to be seen because we don't actually know what the issues this time around are. It's pretty clear that he's far closer to retirement than seriously contending anymore, which is unfortunate, and any return will likely be some sort of retirement Tour.

Let's hope that's not true, but it wouldn't be surprising if he actually never came back for anything but a retirement match.