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Kei Nishikori announces his retirement at the end of the 2026 season
Japanese star Nishikori reached World No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings
April 30, 2026
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Kei Nishikori has won 12 ATP Tour titles.
By ATP staff
Kei Nishikori has announced on social media that he will retire at the end of the 2026 season.
“Today, I have an announcement. I have decided to retire from professional tennis at the end of this season,” Nishikori wrote.
“Since I was young I have been passionate about tennis and I have continued to follow it with one dream in my heart: ‘I want to compete in the world championship.’ Reaching the ATP Tour, playing at the highest level of competition, and maintaining a presence in the Top 10 is something I am very proud of. Win or lose, the special atmosphere I felt in the packed stadiums is irreplaceable.”
Nishikori has been a serious player in Japanese tennis, not only becoming the highest ranked player in the country’s history, but also the first to enter the Top 10 in the world. The Japanese star rose to number 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
The 36-year-old holds 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 in the Nitto ATP Finals four times (2014-16, 2018), reaching the semifinals twice (2016) and twice (2016).
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.
That season, the Japanese star reached the final of the US Open, upsetting then world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Nishikori also advanced to the last four at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami, where he defeated Roger Federer in the quarter-finals.
The current World No. 464 has been one of the best deciders in history, winning 72.4 percent of his deciding sets in tour-level matches. Members of ATP No. 1 Club only Bjorn Borg (73.4%) and John McEnroe (72.8%) did better.
Nishikori recently competed in a tour-level event at last year’s Cincinnati Open. He played an ATP Challenger event last week in Savannah, Georgia.
