Japan’s Rising Son

Tennis star Kei Nishikori is set to receive the Club’s Sportsman of the Year award at a ceremony this month.

Kei Nishikori’s legs were seizing up. It looked like New York’s energy-sapping heat was about to claim another victim. During the fourth set of the tennis player’s first round match at the 2008 US Open, the cramp in his legs became so unbearable that he was forced to call his trainer for help.

“I just cramped. I couldn’t move. Just long points,” he said in halting English after his eventual 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over 29th seed Juan Monaco.

Japan’s most successful tennis player ever can partially thank his compatriot Shuzo Matsuoka for that victory. Thirteen years earlier, Matsuoka had had an eerily similar experience in the middle of his first round game against Petr Korda at Flushing Meadows.

As spasms gripped his legs, he collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony. All his trainer could do was watch from the side of the court. Running over to ease the pain would mean forfeiting the match. Matsuoka eventually lost for delaying the game, but the incident led to a change in the rules for treating cramp and medical timeouts.

Six years after winning his first match in a grand slam tournament, Nishikori returned to the Big Apple to produce a stunning run to the final. After beating Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals and world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, Nishikori lost to towering Croat Marin Cilic in straights sets.

Nishikori, who turns 26 at the end of this month, later admitted that he was overawed by the occasion in 2014. “In the final, I got maybe too nervous, but the tournament gave me a lot of confidence,” he told a British newspaper earlier this year.

Buoyed by his first appearance in a major final, he progressed to the semis of the Paris Masters and qualified for the year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London.

“So much of tennis is played in the mind, and so much is down to momentum,” says veteran tennis reporter Chris Bowers. “When [Nishikori] began winning matches, he grew in confidence, and that means when you’re at a critical point late in a set and you go for, say, the shot into the corner, you’re more likely to make it, and that can make the difference between winning a match and losing the match.”

After turning pro at 17 years old in 2007, Nishikori rose steadily up the rankings, breaking Asian records while battling injury along the way. But since American legend Michael Chang joined Dante Bottini as part of Nishikori’s coaching setup in late 2013, his game has markedly improved.

Seven of Nishikori’s 10 ATP titles have come since the former world No 2’s arrival, and Nishikori reached a career-high ranking of fourth in March this year.

“I think it’s a great matchup with me and Michael because we play kind of similar tennis and we have [the] same height,” the 1.8-meter Nishikori said in an interview earlier this year. “Mentally, he was really tough. [There’s] so, so many things to learn from him. He has a lot of experience, and for sure, he’s helping my game right now, and my ranking is one of the highest right now.”

Following that phenomenal run of success, the Club’s Culture, Community and Entertainment Committee selected Nishikori as the recipient of this year’s Sportsman of the Year award.

“Kei’s tremendous 2014 season was topped off with a trip to the US Open final and his first appearance at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, where the top eight players compete,” says the committee’s JoAnn Yoneyama. “Kei’s success has also launched a resurgence in tennis in Japan. His impact, especially in Japan, is immeasurable.”

Nishikori will receive the honor at a ceremony at the Club on December 1 during one of his rare visits home. Past recipients of the award, which was established in 1989, include baseball’s Ichiro Suzuki (1995), swimmer Kosuke Kitajima (2005) and Olympic hammer thrower Koji Murofushi last year.

Originally from Shimane Prefecture, Nishikori first picked up a tennis racket at the age of 5, around the time the nation was transfixed by Matsuoka’s surprising success at Wimbledon. The Japanese player finally lost in the quarterfinals to American Pete Sampras, who went on to win the title.

“I always tried to [give] 100 percent...but I was too tight,” Club Member Matsuoka told iNTOUCH in 2012. “Kei looks like he’s just playing for fun. It looks [effortless], but he’s always watching everything, which is very important if you want to be at the top.”

Matsuoka coached an 11-year-old Nishikori at one of his summer camps, before the youngster moved to Nick Bollettieri’s IMG Academy in Florida at age 14. The center remains his base.

Bowers, who has followed Nishikori’s career, says he is surprised at the player’s achievements, particularly in a men’s game dominated by tall power servers.

“I thought he had a good, solid backcourt game that would see him into the world’s top 20, but not further. I certainly never expected to see him in the final of one of the majors, so he’s exceeded expectations compared with my original estimation,” he says. “This is why I’m pleased organizations like TAC are honoring him now, rather than waiting for him to win a major or something bigger than he’s achieved to date.”

Like a number of players, Nishikori has seen his seasons disrupted by injury, including a more serious hip problem. “It’s unfortunate to have a couple of injuries this year, but I haven’t had a big one this year. I think it’s getting better,” he told reporters before the recent World Tour Finals in London.

Seven-time major winner Roger Federer said Nishikori’s injury misfortunes made his qualification for London even more remarkable. “Even though he was battling some injuries, he still made it and probably would have been ranked higher had he been healthy throughout the year,” he said. “I think he’s a wonderful player. He’s one of the most exciting players to watch, in my opinion.”

While Nishikori continues to train in an effort to capture that first, elusive grand slam title, next year’s schedule also features the Rio Olympics and another Davis Cup competition. Japan made it to the quarterfinals of the team tournament in 2014, but Nishikori was forced to pull out with a groin injury.

“I suspect winning the Davis Cup could be more satisfying for Kei because I think he would feel he’d contributed more to the fabric of his country by winning in the team variant of tennis than by winning by himself,” Bowers says.
Injury aside, Nishikori is still young enough to be a part of the Olympics in his native Japan in 2020. “I’m going to be 30, so I think I’ll [have] a lot more experience and, if I try better, physically, I’ll be stronger,” he said during the recent World Tour Finals. “I can’t wait to play at [the] Tokyo Olympics.”

Whatever his achievements next year, Nishikori carries not only the hopes of a nation, but a region, too. “I’m very honored to be the No 1 player in Japan and Asia right now,” he said a few weeks ago.

Bowers says players like Nishikori can help grow the game. “Gustavo Kuerten attracted support from right through Latin America in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and in Asia, Michael Chang was massive a few years before Kuerten. Even though he was American, his Chinese descent made him a major icon,” he says.

The tennis world will have to wait and see how much of that success Chang can transfer to his young apprentice.

Sportsman of the Year Award
Dec 1
5–6pm (doors open: 4:30pm)
Winter Garden
Adults: ¥1,500 | Ages 6–19: ¥500
Prices exclude 8 percent consumption tax.

Words: Nick Jones
Photo: ATPWorldTour.com