"It's funny to me but I never lose that motivation" - Kei Nishikori dismisses concerns about losing his desire to keep playing during injury lay-off

Kei Nishikori has said that he still has the desire to compete. The former ATP World No. 4 spoke to the press after his first-round loss at the Miami Open, where he returned after a seven-month injury layoff.

Nishikori's career breakthrough came in 2014 after he roped in former World No. 2 Michael Chang as his coach. The Japanese reached the 2014 US Open final, and his fine form continued in 2015 as he reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and French Open. He also claimed the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Over the course of his career, Nishikori has won 12 ATP Tour singles titles. However, the Japanese has also had his fair share of struggles with injury. In January 2022, Nishikori announced that he would be undergoing a left hip arthroscopy.

Nishikori made his comeback in June 2023 at a Challenger-level tournament, which he won, becoming the first unranked player to do so. However, a fresh knee injury prevented him from competing at the ATP Challenger tournaments in Japan across November and December.

Following his disappointing straight-sets defeat to Sebastian Ofner in the first round of the Miami Open, Nishikori was asked if his injury struggles have adversely affected his motivation to keep playing.

In his response, Nishikori said that his desire to continue competing remains as strong as ever.

"It's actually, it's funny to me, but I never lose that motivation. It's always there. Some reason I cannot explain, but some reason motivation is always there," Nishikori said during a press conference.

However, the 34-year-old acknowledged that his level at this point in time is not good enough to compete against players ranked in the top 50 in the ATP Tour rankings.

"I don't have the clear goal right now. You know, I just want to play a lot of matches. Today, I mean, I was almost enjoying the match, but it wasn't good enough to beat those top, you know, 50 players," Nishikori added.

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Kei Nishikori: "It's tough to keep up my body"

Kei Nishikori at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open

Kei Nishikori was also asked about what he finds most difficult after returning to competition after a long spell on the sidelines. According to the former World No. 4, the 'physical' aspect is tougher to deal with than the mental one.

"For me, physical is the most toughest thing. I almost came back summer of last year, and I played six, seven matches. My body got hurt again. Just for me, it's tough to keep up my body. Schedule-wise, I have to be really smart how I play," Nishikori said.

The Japanese said that he hopes to play at the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston as well. The ATP 250 event, where Frances Tiafoe is the defending champion, starts on March 30.