Season in review: Based on both ranking and the fact that his 2015 campaign lacks a defining performance, Nishikori’s season has been slightly less impressive than the previous one. But his record is basically identical. Last year he was 52-12 heading into the World Tour Finals; this time around he is 53-14. The Japanese star, who wrapped up 2014 at fifth in the world and now finds himself at No. 8, captured a 250-point title in Memphis and 500-pointers in Barcelona and Washington, D.C. Not too much unlike the trend throughout his career, Nishikori’s Grand Slam results were alarmingly hit or miss. He reached quarterfinals at the Australian Open and French Open but lost in the Wimbledon second round to Santiago Giraldo and was upset by Benoit Paire in five sets during first-round action at the U.S. Open.
2015 record: 53-14
Fall record (post-U.S. Open): 7-3
Best tournament: Citi Open title
d. James Duckworth 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4
d. Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-4
d. Sam Groth 6-4, 6-4
d. Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
d. John Isner 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Biggest win at different tournament: d. Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4 in Montreal quarterfinals
World Tour Finals appearances: 1
World Tour Finals record: 2-2
Best World Tour Finals result: Semifinals (2014)
Record against other World Tour Finals qualifiers: 18-27
vs. Novak Djokovic: 2-4
vs. Andy Murray: 1-5
vs. Roger Federer: 2-3
vs. Stan Wawrinka: 1-3
vs. Rafael Nadal: 1-7
vs. Tomas Berdych: 3-1
vs. David Ferrer: 8-4
Quotable: “I am very excited to go back to London. Being part of the best eight players in the world is a big honor and something I work very hard for every day. This tournament is one of the flagship tournaments of the year for us and I look forward to coming back.”
Outlook: Nishikori is not in the same kind of form prior to London that he enjoyed last year. In 2014, he finished runner-up at the U.S. Open, captured titles in Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, and made a run to the Paris semifinals. This season he is a mere 5-5 in his last 10 tournament matches dating back to Montreal. The oft-injured competitor retired with a back issue at the recent BNP Paribas Masters but insisted it was more of a precautionary move and that he will be ready to go for London.
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You should add a vote for “You’re kidding me, right?”
definitely seems like it…this voting becomes pointless given the current (year of 2015) developments…
or should we put it this way: (in your wishful thinking) who will win the WTF… 🙂
” lost in the Wimbledon second round to Santiago Giraldo” requires an asterisk, though. Hopefully he’ll do well there, so he can get rid of all the speculations people in his country are making…
well his losses at the upcoming WTFs may require asterisks, as well.
I don’t think it can be assumed that Nishikori will be healthy in London. So all of his injury-related losses during the season are worth being discussed, with or without asterisks.
This is all assuming he does turn up. If he did turn up, I doubt he would be 100% fit so I hope he is in the same group as Rafa as he also has the worst record against Rafa of the top 8.
If he is not 100% fit than the honourable thing is to pull out before the tournament starts. Nobody wants to see a player making an injury worse by continuing for the sake of carrying on. To start knowing you are taking a risk and therefore may have to retire from a RR tournament is the worse possible scenario.
Gasquet will make a worthy replacement for Kei.
Exactly. The decision should be made before the draw takes place, not after the lst round has been played. .
Last year Raonic pulled out after his first match with Murray saying he didn’t want to risk making his injury worse which could mean him missing 6-8 weeks of the tour. A somewhat woolly statement IMO. But once the draw has happened when a player drops out it skews the results for all others depending on whether the substitute match up is more favourable to them or not.
Are you going to the O2 this year?
if this question is directed at me, yes.
Yes, I know you will be there this year. Please hold up a banner and give us a wave so we know where you are!
i won’t be down low enough to be seen 🙁 – athough I will at least be in the lower level for many matches
And Vamosrafa you do the same…………………………..but your banner can say VAMOS
It seems that Rafa can be a milestone for whatever/whomever…
🙂
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTX2iCzVAAAHcEY.png:medium
The first time I read that I thought you wrote Rafa can be a millstone………………..lol.
Ricky,
how about you getting autographs of Rafa, Novak, Fed, Andy…scan it and put it as a photo on the player’s page respectively…that would be fun to see… 🙂