Nishikori Fights for Final Grand Slam in Retirement Season

The Long Road Back to Flushing Meadows

Kei Nishikori is not supposed to be playing qualifying matches at a Grand Slam. The former world No. 4 who reached the US Open final in 2014 and the semi-finals in both 2016 and 2018 is contesting a qualifying draw for the first time since 2007 — here in New York, of all places. He is 36 years old, has announced he will retire at the end of the 2026 season, and on Thursday needs one more win to make the main draw of what may be his final Grand Slam tournament.

When Nishikori last played qualifying at the US Open, he was a teenager on the cusp of his breakthrough. The intervening 19 years brought a Slam final, three semi-final appearances at majors, a career-high ranking of world No. 4, and an injury saga that at several points looked likely to end everything prematurely. He has outlasted all of it. Now he arrives at a qualifying draw not as a curiosity but as a legitimate competitor, and the results so far have borne that out.

Two Rounds Down, One to Go

In the first round, Nishikori dispatched Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 — a performance that showed the ball-striking quality behind his best years is still accessible when his body cooperates. The second round brought a more symbolically loaded match: 16-year-old American wild card Michael Antonius, 20 years his junior and one of the most anticipated US prospects on the NextGen radar. Nishikori answered with composure, winning 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final qualifying round.

It was not without effort. Antonius, playing his first qualifying match at a major, pushed hard in both sets. But Nishikori's experience — knowing when to press, when to absorb, when the moment has arrived — is not something a teenager can replicate, however talented.

Sakamoto: Experience Versus Youth, in Japanese

Thursday's final qualifying round puts Nishikori against Rei Sakamoto, a 20-year-old compatriot ranked inside the top 100 and among the most promising players in the current Japanese wave. The dynamic is almost literary: the man who put Japan on the Grand Slam map facing one of those most likely to keep it there. Sakamoto reached the final qualifying round by beating French player Alexandre Muller 6-3, 6-3, and is approaching this draw with results that suggest he belongs at this level.

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Nishikori's 2014 US Open remains the reference point for what he achieved at Flushing Meadows. His semi-final victory over Novak Djokovic that year — before falling to Marin Čilić in the final — made him the first player of Asian heritage to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the Open Era. He returned to the semi-finals in 2016 and 2018, cementing a record at this venue that is genuinely exceptional. The US Open has been kind to him in a way few other tournaments have.

What One More Win Would Mean

A victory against Sakamoto would place Nishikori in the main draw for his 11th US Open appearance and, in all likelihood, his last. The main draw begins on Monday 31 August, with Alexander Zverev as the top seed on the men's side — a player who was not yet a professional when Nishikori reached his first Grand Slam semi-final. The world has moved on. Nishikori is asking it to pause for one more afternoon.

His presence in the qualifying draw has already given this fortnight a storyline that transcends the usual pre-tournament buildup. Whatever happens on Thursday, he will have arrived in New York, played through pressure, and shown that 36 and retiring does not mean finished. If one more win arrives, it will be a fitting final chapter for one of tennis's most quietly extraordinary careers.