Kei Nishikori

Background

Nishikori began playing tennis at the age of five and on July 17, 2007 he qualified for his first ATP main draw event at the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, California at the age of 17. Though he lost in the first round, to Wesley Moodie, he emerged as a future star to watch on the ATP Tour. He is represented by IMG.

Nishikori lives in Florida, trains at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, and is coached by Glenn Weiner. His parents are Kiyoshi and Eri and he has a sister, Reina. His hobbies include soccer, golf, reading, and listening to music.

Career

Junior

Kei won the 2007 Luxilon Cup held at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open by defeating Michael McClune. Nishikori won the 2004 title at the Riad 21 Tournament in Rabat, Morocco and was a quarterfinalist at the 2006 Junior French Open. He partnered with Emiliano Massa of Argentina to win the 2006 Junior French Open.

2006

Nishikori qualified and won the title at the ITF Futures event in Mazatlan, Mexico. He began the year by receiving a wildcard to the Kyoto Challenger in Kyoto, Japan.

2007

A finalist in two USTA Pro Circuit events, Nishikori lost to Donald Young in Little Rock, Arkansas and Alex Bogomolov, Jr in Carson, California. He partnered with Donald Young to win the doubles title at Little Rock, Arkansas. He paired with triple-French Open champion, Gustavo Kuerten at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida where they lost in the first round. Nishikori served as a hitting partner for Roger Federer at Wimbledon. After his ATP main draw debut in Los Angeles, he qualified for the Indianapolis Tennis Championships in July 2007. He beat Alejandro Falla in the first round 6-4 6-3 to record his first ATP main draw win. He followed that up with a 3-set win over Michael Berrer, the eliminator of 7th seed Robby Ginepri, to advance to his first ever ATP quarterfinal. He lost to Dmitry Tursunov but Nishikori became the youngest player to reach the quarterfinals at Indianapolis since Boris Becker, who went on to reach the semifinals, in 1985. In his third career ATP event, Nishikori defeated Teimuraz Gabashvili in the first round in Washington, DC before falling to Julien Benneteau in the second. Attempted to qualify for the ATP Masters Series Canada and for his first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open. Qualified for the ATP event in Beijing and lost in the first round to Ivan Ljubicic. Nishikori received a wildcard to the ATP event in Tokyo, Japan where he lost in the first round to Zack Fleishman. He participated in the draw ceremony in Tokyo and received the Tokyo Sports Writers Club award. Nishikori represented Japan at the Asian Hopman Cup 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Source: Wikipedia