Kei Nishikori

Honestly, Kei is the guy who made "a Japanese man in the world's top tier" feel normal instead of impossible, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it. When he made that 2014 US Open final, the whole country was up at 3 a.m. losing their minds, and climbing to world No. 4 against guys built like linebackers? He did it with brains, footwork and that wicked backhand, not brute force. What I love most is the stubbornness. He'd get wrecked by injuries again and again, and every time he'd just claw his way back onto the court. From a kid in Shimane shipped off to Florida at thirteen to a Rio bronze medalist, his whole run is proof that craft and grit beat raw power more often than people admit. Total respect from me.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kei Nishikori is a Japanese professional tennis player born on December 29, 1989, in Matsue, Shimane. At age 13 he was selected by the Masaaki Morita Tennis Fund and traveled to Florida to train at the IMG Academy, turning professional in 2007. He reached the final of the 2014 US Open — the first Asian man in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final — and achieved a career-high ATP ranking of No. 4 in 2015, the highest ever for an Asian male player. At the 2016 Rio Olympics he won a bronze medal in men's singles, Japan's first Olympic tennis medal in 96 years.

Name (English)

Kei Nishikori

Name (Japanese)

錦織圭

Reading

にしこり けい

Born

December 29, 1989 (age 36)

Origin

Matsue, Shimane, Japan

Height

178 cm

Occupation

Professional tennis player

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Snake

Blood type

A

Agency

IMG (International Management Group)

Active years

2007–2026 (retirement planned)

High school

Aomori Yamada High School (correspondence program)

University

Did not attend

Debut

Turned professional in 2007. At age 13, he was selected as a development athlete by the Morrita Masaaki Tennis Fund and traveled to the United States, where he trained at the IMG Academy in Florida.

Awards & achievements

• 2008 ATP Tour first title (Delray Beach International Tennis Championships)
• 2012 Rakuten Japan Open champion
• 2014 US Open runner-up (first Asian man in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final)
• 2015 ATP World No. 4 career-high ranking (all-time highest for an Asian male player)
• 2016 Rio Olympics men's singles bronze medal (Japan's first Olympic tennis medal in 96 years)

Timeline

1. 2003Selected by the Morrita Masaaki Tennis Fund; traveled to the IMG Academy in Florida, USA at age 13
2. 2007Turned professional
3. 2008Won his first ATP Tour title at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, the second Japanese man to win an ATP title after Shuzo Matsuoka
4. 2014Reached the US Open men's singles final and finished runner-up; first Asian man in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final
5. 2015Achieved career-high ATP ranking of World No. 4, the highest ever for an Asian male player
6. 2016Won bronze medal in men's singles at the Rio Olympics; Japan's first Olympic tennis medal in 96 years
7. 2019Underwent right elbow surgery and sat out the rest of the 2019 season
8. 2020Match appearances reduced, partly due to the impact of COVID-19
9. 2020On December 18 it was revealed that he had married former fashion model Ako Mitsuki

Spouse

Ako Mitsuki (former fashion model; marriage made public in December 2020)

Hobbies

• Gaming
• Listening to music

Specialties

• Tennis

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://www.keinishikori.com
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/keinishikori/
• Xhttps://x.com/keinishikori
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%8C%A6%E7%B9%94%E5%9C%AD
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q311222

Tags

• From Matsue, Shimane
• Professional tennis player
• US Open runner-up
• World No. 4
• Rio Olympics bronze medal
• IMG
• Retiring 2026

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.