Kei Nishikori provides update on his injury, offseason training e goals

Top-ranked Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori has revealed that his shoulder is not yet at 100 percent but added that the rehab process is going well as he plans to ramp up the intensity of his practices.

After losing in the third round at the US Open in 2019 September, the Japanese underwent a season-ending elbow surgery and that caused him to play only four events last season.

Nishikori, who hoped to be ready for the start of the 2020 season, ended up kicking his season in September at the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel.

Now, Nishikori is bothered by a shoulder injury.

"Since my shoulder injury I could hardly practice serve. Had some other practice with Max for a couple of weeks in US. Since I came to Japan I have not had much practice, I'm gonna work hard after going back to US," Nishikori said, per Seiadoumogera/Twitter.

"My shoulder is not 100% yet, but rehab is going well, I'm sure it will be perfect next year. I want to fix my serving form. My shoulder injury was caused by serving form, I think, maybe partly because of other body (movement) as well, so I want to change that.

"I had only a few matches this year, I was not ready. I'll try to play as many matches as possible next year to get my feeling back. The more matches I played the more the feeling returned to me, I look forward to (playing matches) next year."

Nishikori underlines he is not done 

Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up, is still hoping to achieve his goal of winning a maiden Masters or Grand Slam title before he retires.

"I'm already 30 years old, but I still have much room for improvement, that makes me feel like I still get it, I enjoy that and try to have many goals to achieve," Nishikori noted.

"Lots of different things happen every year, so it's like year by year, day by day. I have my goals or images of my future for sure, but I just try to work day in, day out, I don't think about far future so much."

Meanwhile, speaking of the Olympics, Nishikori said: "Under such circumstances it should be difficult for Japanese citizens to think about the Olympics. If the situation improves w/ vaccine or something, that will be the first step. I'm just trying to be mentally ready to play the Olympics."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3ge0Ndq