"It's been two years since I felt like this" says Nishikori after reaching semifinal in Washington

Kei Nishikori reached the Citi Open Washington semifinal and the Japanese player is feeling the best he felt in a very long time.

Ever since Kei Nishikori suffered a season-ending wrist injury in 2019 the Japanese player has struggled to return to form. This semifinalist will be his first since 2019 when he reached the semifinals in Barcelona. After the win, the 2015 Washington champion said:

“I feel like it’s been two years that I feel like this. The way I feel on the court is very nice, very comfortable, being aggressive. I finally start feeling the ball. So feel like beating the top 10, it [had] been two years also. But after coming back from my wrist injury, last week was the first time I felt like strong, and I feel like I’m carrying that this week too."

Nishikori showed some flashes of old brilliance at the Tokyo Olympics where he upset world number 7 Andrey Rublev before being bested by Novak Djokovic. Nishikori then travelled to Washington where he lifted the trophy in 2015 and his win over Lloyd Harris in the quarterfinals has been his best match this week.

The former US Open finalist declared after the match:

“Very happy. Very pleased that how I keep playing like this. There are some up and downs, but yeah – last two weeks I have been feeling pretty nice.”

Nishikori alwasy played well on American hard courts and with the US Open and three Masters events happening in the rest of the year the currently 67th best tennis player in the world might be set for huge gains.