Nishikori withdraws from Australian Open

Japan's Kei Nishikori has pulled out of this month's Australian Open as he continues to recover from a wrist injury, the world No 22 said Wednesday. The former U.S. Open finalist, who last year reached the fourth round of the first grand slam of the season in Melbourne, has been sidelined since August and said he still could not handle playing best-of-five-set matches. "The Aussie Open is my favorite slam...it's my 'home' slam...and it hurts that I will have to miss it this year," Nishikori, 28, said in a statement posted on his website.

Kei Nishikori is out of the Australian Open—his second straight Grand Slam tournament missed with a wrist injury: https://t.co/6VPihRmDlv pic.twitter.com/wwRT6Ft734

— TENNIS.com (@Tennis) January 4, 2018

"My rehab is going well but I am just not ready 100% to come back yet in best-of-five-set matches." Nishikori was ninth in the world ranking before sustaining a season-ending wrist injury ahead of the Cincinnati Masters last August. He had been hoping to make his return at the season-opening Brisbane International, where he was runner-up in 2017, but withdrew from that event 11 days ago.

Kei Nishikori has withdrawn from the 2018 #AusOpen because he is not ready to return to best-of-five matches after suffering a right wrist injury https://t.co/aEg58EVyUo pic.twitter.com/iKbJDUWVuB

— SI Tennis (@SI_Tennis) January 3, 2018

Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach a grand slam final at the 2014 U.S. Open but did not compete at Flushing Meadows last year because of his injury. The Australian Open will be played from Jan. 15-28.