By BRIAN MAHONEY<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Rei Sakamoto played his way into the U.S. Open \u2014 but only by taking the spot that Kei Nishikori<\/a>, Japan\u2019s greatest men\u2019s tennis star, hoped to earn for one last Grand Slam appearance.<\/p>\n In a changing of the guard match, Sakamoto beat Nishikori 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Friday in the final round of qualifying to earn a place in the main draw.<\/p>\n \u201cNot happy to lose today, but I\u2019m happy for Rei,\u201d Nishikori said. \u201cHe\u2019s the next Japanese top player.\u201d<\/p>\n The 20-year-old Sakamoto, like many other players from Japan, considers Nishikori his hero<\/a>. He was 8 years old and remembers when Nishikori reached the 2014 U.S. Open final<\/a>, becoming the first Asian man to get that far in a Grand Slam tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cI honestly grew up watching him play and he was my idol for my whole life,\u201d Sakamoto said, \u201cand it\u2019s also a pity to see his last season.\u201d<\/p>\n Sakamoto is typical of many tennis players and doesn\u2019t like to look at his draw ahead of time to see who he might play. This time, though, he couldn\u2019t help but find out.<\/p>\n \u201cLike, after the second that draw came out, my mom texted me, \u2018Hey, I hope you can make it to the final and play Kei,\u2019\u201d Sakamoto said. \u201cSo this time I got spoiled by my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n Nishikori, 36, has battled injuries in recent years and has said this will be his final season. No longer ranked high enough for a guaranteed spot in the main draw, he was given a wild card by the U.S. Tennis Association into the qualifying tournament.<\/p>\n He won two matches, but needed one more to lock up his spot. With fans chanting his name late in the second set, Nishikori was outplayed by Sakamoto, who pounded 19 aces, the last to end it after Nishikori had saved two match points.<\/p>\n Afterward, Nishikori was presented with a framed portrait of himself in action by U.S. Open officials. Sakamoto helped hold it up for a picture together.<\/p>\n It was a big moment for Sakamoto, but also a bittersweet one.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of people, like most of the people still follow tennis because of him,\u201d Sakamoto said. \u201cSo he\u2019s a superstar and he did a lot to Japanese tennis I think.\u201d<\/p>\n The final round of qualifying was pushed back to Friday because of rain a day earlier. Zheng Qinwen, the 2024 Olympic women\u2019s gold medalist in singles, pulled out a three-set victory to reach the main draw, while Bianca Andreescu, who beat Serena Williams in the 2019 U.S. Open final but has struggled to stay healthy since, blew a lead and lost in three sets.<\/p>\n Grigor Dimitrov, who reached the 2019 U.S. Open semifinals after beating Roger Federer in what turned out to be Federer\u2019s final match in Flushing Meadows<\/a>, advanced Thursday when his opponent withdrew.<\/p>\n None of those matches had quite the same stakes as Nishikori\u2019s. Once ranked No. 4 in the world, he returned to the U.S. Open semifinals in 2016 and \u203218 but had various injuries that kept him off the court for long stretches and determined he will stop playing after this year\u2019s Japan Open.<\/p>\n \u201cI think his career would have been one of the best, maybe on a similar level to maybe a (Andy) Murray or Stan Wawrinka if he didn\u2019t have so many injuries, because he was injured a lot, especially in his prime,\u201d No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev said. \u201cOnce he got up to No. 4 in the world, No. 5 in the world, every single time he got injured. So I\u2019d say in that aspect he was a little bit unlucky, but from a tennis point of view, he was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n