Japan’s Kei Nishikori won’t participate in the Indian Wells Masters this season as he still looks to recover from his fitness issues.
The former world number four, is still to recover from his right elbow injury, one which saw him withdraw from the ATP Cup earlier this season as well. Nishikori, who won the Brisbane International last year, hasn’t played a single competitive match this year so far.
In fact the last time Nishikori played was at the 2019 US Open where he reached the third round before losing to Australia’s Alex de Minaur. A quarterfinal at all three, the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon were his best performances in the season.
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Nishikori had had a surgery in October last year for his ailing elbow but isn’t well enough to return to courts. Nishikori, who already had Michael Chang on his team, also added Max Mirnyi but the trio is yet to work together in preparation for a competitive match.
Other than his Grand Slam showing last year, the Japanese number one also made the last four stage at the Rotterdam Open, and then repeated that at the Barcelona Open as well.
A quarterfinal at the Rome Masters followed before those three solid results in the Grand Slams but the lack of other results and missing the rest of the season and the start of this one has pushed him down to 31st in the world.
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Nishikori follows Roger Federer out of the tournament after the Swiss maestro also opted out because of a surgery on his right knee. Federer had last played at the Australian Open and came back from behind in two of his matches to win them and make the semifinal where he lost to Novak Djokovic.
The Indian Wells Masters begins from March 9 with Dominic Thiem starting off as the defending champion. He had won the title by overcoming Federer in the final last season.
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