Luckless Nishikori faces injury deja vu

LONDON: Bad luck seems to follow Japan’s Kei Nishikori around at Wimbledon. For the second consecutive year injury, and not an opponent, knocked the fifth seed out of the world’s most famous tennis tournament. Last year the 2014 US Open runner-up had to bow out of the grasscourt championships before his second-round match against Santiago Giraldo because of a calf strain he picked up in the Halle warm-up tournament. It was a case of deja vu on Monday as Nishikori, facing Croatia’s Marin Cilic for a place in the quarter-finals, was sidelined by a rib injury which had also forced him out of Halle. “It’s the same injury I had in Halle. It’s been not recovering well these two weeks,” said Nishikori, who quit before his second-round match at the German event. “After the third round here, it’s got worse. I was in too much pain on the court. I couldn’t really compete today.” Nishikori’s involvement in Monday’s match was kept to a minimum during the opening exchanges with Cilic who beat him to the Flushing Meadows title. (Reuters)