TENNIS NEWS • Japan’s Kei Nishikori Accepts Wild Card into San Diego Open ATP 250 Tournament

By TennisBalls Staff
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Updated: September 9, 2021

Japanese tennis superstar Kei Nishikori has been awarded a Wild Card into the main draw of the $600,000 San Diego Open. The ATP 250-Level tournament is scheduled to be played Monday, September 27 through Sunday, October 3, 2021 at Barnes Tennis Center.

The 31-year-old Nishikori has captured 12 career ATP singles titles since turning professional in 2007. He is the top Asian player in FedEx ATP Rankings history, achieving a career-high No. 4 in 2015. His current ranking is No. 56.

A bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Nishikori became the first Asian Grand Slam men’s singles finalist at the 2014 US Open where he defeated World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

This season Nishikori has reached the semifinals in Washington and the quarterfinals in Rotterdam, Dubai and on home soil at the Tokyo Olympics. He is coming off a third round performance at the US Open where he extended current World No. 1 Djokovic to four sets.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming to Southern California and I’m looking forward to playing in San Diego,” said Nishikori. “The San Diego Open has a tremendous field with so many of the top players already entered. I want to thank the tournament for the wild card and the opportunity to play this event.”

For additional player information on Nishikori, click here.

“We are absolutely delighted to have a player like Kei Nishikori in our tournament,” said San Diego Open Tournament Director Ryan Redondo, “He’s been a Top 5 player and a former US Open finalist. Kei is an exciting player to watch and fans are going to have a great time watching him compete for the title during the tournament.”

Top 20 players entered in the 2021 San Diego Open include: No. 7 Andrey Rublev of Russia, No. 10 Denis Shapovalov, No. 11 Casper Ruud of Norway, No. 13 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, No. 14 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, No. 15 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and No. 19 Cristian Garin of Chile.

The ATP 250 tournament features a 28-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw. The event offers a total of $600,000 in prize money and tournament champions receive 250 points in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

Tickets for the San Diego Open can be purchased at www.barnessdopen.com.

About Barnes Tennis Center – The Center is owned and operated by Youth Tennis San Diego. It was built in 1995 and completed in 1997. This 4.5 million dollar facility was made possible with generous public and private donations. The Center is named after our lead donor family – the “George E. Barnes Family Junior Tennis Center.” The Center is dedicated to the youth of San Diego. Children 18 and under have court priority over adults with advanced reservations! The capital campaign was spearheaded by Dr. Homer Peabody Jr. Youth Tennis San Diego gratefully acknowledges Dr. Peabody’s tremendous contribution to make our dream a reality.