By Scoop Malinowski
Kei Nishikori returned to play the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open ATP $75,000 Challenger for the first time since winning it in 2010 as a 20 year old Next Generation ATP rising star. Now he’s a 36 year old possible future International Tennis Hall of Famer ranked close to 500 in the world, a far cry from his golden days of world no. 3 and conquering the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, Milos Raonic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka.
The presence of the Japanese legend impacted the tournament a week before he even hit his first ball as I was told by a tournament owner that it was possible Nishikori might announce his retirement at the Sarasota Open. A post on X and a mention of Kei “is strongly considering retiring at Sarasota Open” snowballed into an international story. Then a few days later, the lead sponsor of the tournament, the wealthy philanthropist Elizabeth Moore was quoted in the Sarasota Herald Tribune as saying Kei’s last tournament would be Sarasota Open.
This news turned out to inaccurate speculation as the wildcard entry Nishikori won his first round match vs Nicholas Kicker of Argentina in two quality sets and made it clear rumors of his retirement were greatly exaggerated. “I just play one match at a time. I’m going to try to enjoy every time on the court and just try to do my best,” Nishikori said after registering his fourth match win of 2026 season.
Then the next night Nishikori faced the no. 1 seed Yibing Wu of China, ranked 115 in the world, and after losing in three hard fought sets, the Sarasota Open stadium court and announcer/post match interviewer Ray Collins, asked Kei, before interviewing Wu, if he would like to say anything to his fans, giving Kei the opportunity and platform to possibly retire. Kei replied, “No thanks.” When Collins offered to give him the microphone, Kei politely declined again, “No.”
All the buzz about will Kei retire or continue to try to re-find his elite level, resulted in about half a dozen of Japanese media reporters descending on the tournament.
But the big story about the retirement of one of the great champions of an era will have to wait because it’s become quite clear Nishikori is absolutely not thinking about or considering the option of quitting now, he’s all in on working and training to play elite level ATP World Tour tennis again. He must believe – based on the special tennis genius in his mind and body, and all the experiences of the extraordinary success he has been able to achieve – that he can still play some more sensational tennis. Just like Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Agassi, Rosewall and of course Jimmy Connors managed to do after age 35.
The contrary position for Nishikori is that he has a lot of mileage on his legs because his style of play for his undersized body of having to grind out so many long, draining, marathon matches for almost two decade on the ATP World Tour, along with countless injuries, has taken a massive toll, similar to how sub six footer counter punchers like Michael Chang, Lleyton Hewitt, Marcelo Rios were all finished by their early 30s.
But Kei Nishikori is his own unique kind of champion who knows what it takes to elevate himself into the elite pantheon of the top ten in the ATP rankings. He knows how to beat the greatest champions in the history of this sport. If he believes he can compete again in 1000s and Grand Slams, or even play the greatest match of his life in 2026 or 2027, we must respect that and wish him good luck.
As we have seen so many times over the years… sport can be stranger than fiction.
Mark Scoop Malinowski has covered the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open since 2013 and authored 13 tennis books including The Sarasota Open Experience and the newest release Facing Andre Agassi and he’s considering doing Facing Kei Nishikori.
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