Hey there, it’s Chris, just your average tennis enthusiast with a knack for jotting down thoughts — some coherent, some… well, they just exist. So there’s this dude, Kei Nishikori, you might’ve heard of him. He’s 35 now, still crushing it on the tour. Seriously, does this guy ever age? Anyway, he just notched win number 450. Yeah, you heard me right, 450! That’s like almost one win for every anime episode ever produced. Kidding. But maybe not.
Picture this: it’s Thursday in Madrid, and Kei is out there like he’s playing for some life-altering stakes, going up against Aleksandar Vukic. The result? A rollercoaster of a match. He took it 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. And with that win, he joined this elite club — the eighth active player to hit that milestone of 450 wins. I mean, from a land where tennis stars barely even cracked the top 40 until Kei came along? Mind-blowing stuff, for real.
While on court, I guess someone decided to probe him about how he achieved this feat. His response? Classic Kei — “No idea. Just playing one match at a time.” Simple guy, simple philosophy, and yet, here he is. He’s gearing up to face Denis Shapovalov next. That might be a thriller!
Now, Kei has this goal, kinda modest but with a touch of grandeur — reaching 500 wins. “That’s a lot,” he mused. Ha! Well, he ain’t wrong.
When you look around, not too many active players have hit those numbers. You’ve got Djokovic up there, leading the pack with his gazillion wins — okay, 1136 actually. Then there’s Gasquet, Cilic, Monfils, Wawrinka, Zverev, Dimitrov, and — tada! – Nishikori.
Fun fact, or random segue about Kei if you will: he hails from good old Shimane, Japan, and had this rough patch in 2022 with hip surgery. Fast forward to 2024, and he’s already a nominee for the ATP Comeback Player of the Year. His season began with quite the bang, reaching the finals in Hong Kong. It was his first ATP final in, like, six years. Imagine the feels! Anyway, good old Kei keeps doing Kei things, and the tennis world is definitely richer for it.
