Kei Nishikori withdrew from the Mubadala Citi DC Open on Tuesday due to a left knee injury. The Japanese star was replaced in the draw by Sho Shimabukuro, who will face South African Lloyd Harris.

The 33-year-old returned from a 20-month absence in June, when he won an ATP Challenger Tour title in Puerto Rico. He won eight of his 10 Challenger-level matches before returning to ATP Tour action last week in Atlanta.

”I was having knee pain left from last week and it got a little bit worse after [my] first match last week,” Nishikori said. “I was trying to play a couple more matches. It was okay, but hurting more, more and more. So I tried to play today, but I was not good enough to play. So unfortunately, I have to withdraw.”

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The former World No. 4 showed his good form at the Atlanta Open, an ATP 250 event, where he made the quarter-finals with straight-sets victories over Jordan Thompson and Shang Juncheng. 

Nishikori owns an 18-7 record in Washington, where he won the title in 2015 and has reached two additional semi-finals. His most recent appearance in Washington came in 2021.

”I’m very disappointed because I always play good here. Good memories and good crowd. I always enjoy playing this week,” Nishikori said. “But this is what it is, and I’ve got to keep climbing because I just started playing again and I know my body is not 100 per cent strong enough to play many matches. I think these things happen [the] first couple months [back], but big tournaments are coming up. So I [will try to] to be ready for that.”