Kei Nishikori in fitness race for ATP World Tour Finals in London

Sport360 staff 18:06 05/11/2015
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  • In pain: Kei Nishikori.

    Kei Nishikori said on Thursday he was hopeful he would be fit in time to play in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals, despite being forced to abandon his Paris Masters third round tie against Richard Gasquet with back pain.

    The 25-year-old Japanese star had already secured the last of the eight qualifying slots for London, which gets underway on November 15, before coming to Paris for the final regular season tournament.

    But after pulling out of the Swiss Open in Basel last week with shoulder pain, his injury woes compounded in Paris as he shook hands with Gasquet when trailing 7-6 (7/3) 4-1.

    – Swiss Indoors: Federer beats Nadal to win seventh Basel title
    – Singapore: Radwanska beats Kvitova to win WTA Finals
    – Fed Cup: Sharapova upbeat ahead of Russia’s final against Czech

    “After the first set, I started feeling my abs, side abs. Couldn’t really hit serves. I couldn’t really hit 100 percent,” he said. “If you’re not 100 percent, not easy to beat Richard. I decided to not play.

    “It should be okay in few days. I will check later, but I will see how it goes these next couple of days.”

    A run into last year’s US Open final highlighted Nishikori’s emergence as a top-10 player, and he has consolidated that with a consistent year, which has brought him three ATP titles.

    But the Asian number one admitted that he may be paying the price for his heavy workload over the last 11 months.

    “I have been playing a lot of matches this year, maybe that’s why I have been hurting these couple months, not feeling 100 percent yet,” he said.

    “But, you know, on the court I was playing good tennis today and very happy with my tennis.

    “Just need to recover for next London Tour Final. Just one more tournament to go. So I just get recovered soon and fight for another one.”

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