Kei Nishikori, who retired in his opening match at the Barcelona Open on Wednesday, is more confident in his form of late, but acknowledges that the slow surface is not the best for his oft-injured wrist. At last week's Monte Carlo Masters, the kickoff to the European clay-court swing, the 28-year-old posted his best performance since returning to tour from a wrist injury.
Nishikori lost to Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo final, 6-3, 6-2, and retired after losing the first set of his match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Barcelona. The hope is that this is not a long-term injury.
“I think it's more pain, especially playing on clay you got to use your wrist a little more. You got to hit more spin,” Nishikori said at Monte Carlo. “Automatically you've got to hit spin. I think it makes little tougher than hard court. That makes my wrist hurt little bit.
"I got to check every week, every day. It's not 100 percent yet, so...I think little pains, it's not just my wrist. It's my hands, my arm, everywhere. I got to take care every week.”
Match point from Nishikori's win over Cilic in Monte Carlo:
