{"id":640431,"date":"2026-05-01T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/640431\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:57:09","slug":"kei-nishikori-announces-he-will-retire-at-the-end-of-2026-season-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/640431\/","title":{"rendered":"Kei Nishikori announces he will retire at the end of 2026 season | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Player News
\n Kei Nishikori announces he will retire at the end of 2026 season<\/p>\n

Japanese star Nishikori reached World No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings<\/p>\n

April 30, 2026<\/p>\n

\"Kei<\/p>\n

ATP Tour\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kei Nishikori has won 12 ATP Tour singles titles.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n

Kei Nishikori<\/a> announced on social media that he will retire at the end of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

“Today, I have an announcement. I have decided to retire from professional tennis at the end of this season,” Nishikori wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Since I was a child, I have been passionate about tennis and I have continued to pursue it with only one dream in my heart: ‘I want to compete on the world stage.’ Reaching the ATP Tour, playing at the highest level of competition, and maintaining a presence in the Top 10 is something I am extremely proud of. Whether in victory or defeat, the special atmosphere I felt in packed arenas is irreplaceable.”<\/p>\n

Nishikori has been a critical figure for Japanese tennis, not only becoming the highest-ranked player in the country\u2019s history, but also the first to break into the world\u2019s Top 10. The Japanese star has climbed as high as No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old owns 12 ATP Tour titles, including two on home soil in Tokyo in 2012 and 2014. The winner of 451 tour-level matches has also competed at the Nitto ATP Finals<\/a> four times (2014-16, 2018), reaching the semi-finals twice (2014 and 2016). <\/p>\n

Nishikori enjoyed the best season of his career in 2014, when he won four tour-level titles and posted a 54-14 record, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index.<\/p>\n

That season, the Japanese star reached the US Open<\/a> final, upsetting then-World No. 1 Novak Djokovic<\/a> in the semi-finals. Nishikori also advanced to the last four at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami, where he defeated Roger Federer<\/a> in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The current World No. 464 has been one of the best deciding-set players in history, winning 72.4 per cent of his deciding sets in tour-level matches. Only ATP No. 1 Club members Bjorn Borg<\/a> (73.4%) and John McEnroe<\/a> (72.8%) have done better.<\/p>\n

Nishikori most recently competed in a tour-level event at last year\u2019s Cincinnati Open<\/a>. He played in an ATP Challenger event last week in Savannah, Georgia.<\/p>\n

“My love for tennis and my belief that I could become a stronger player always brought me back to the court. I feel that all of these experiences have enriched and shaped my life. I am deeply grateful [for] my family and to everyone who has supported me at all times,” Nishikori wrote. “To be honest, I still wish I could continue my playing career. Even so, looking back on everything up to this point, I can proudly say that I gave it my all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am truly happy to have walked this path. I will cherish every moment of the remaining matches and fight to the very end.”<\/p>\n

\"\u201cATP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Player News Kei Nishikori announces he will retire at the end of 2026 season Japanese star Nishikori reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-640431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}