Shoulder injury contributed to Kei Nishikori’s defeat at Toronto Masters

Japan’s Kei Nishikori withdrew from the ATP Toronto Masters tournament on Wednesday due to a shoulder injury, losing in the second round match to Poland’s Hubert Hurkac.

Asia’s top men’s player was fresh off a semi-final last week in Washington, his deepest run in any event since January 2019, and had defeated Miomir Kecmanovic in his opening-round match.

“I’m disappointed to announce that I have decided to withdraw from my match today,” Nishikori said. “The right shoulder is very sore after a long stretch of tennis and I do not want to risk further injury.”

I will now spend my focus on getting healthy and back on court again.

“Nishikori, ranked 55th, has had his injury troubles over the past few seasons, missing the last half of the 2018 campaign.

He reached the quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympics, taking his first victory over a top-10 foe since 2018 by beating Andrey Rublev, before losing in his home-nation event to top-ranked Novak Djokovic.

Nishikori, 31, had taken the bronze medal in singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Nishikori made his deepest Grand Slam run at the US Open in 2014, losing the US Open final to Marin Cilic, and is set to return to the