Is Frances Tiafoe the Perfect Man to Send Off Kei Nishikori?

To be fair to the legendary Kei Nishikori , he could have drawn considerably easier opponents for what may become the final match of his professional career. However, there may not be many better ones. Nishikori will begin his final Japan Open against Frances Tiafoe, the No. 2 seed and current No. 8 in the world .

The Japanese star has already confirmed that Tokyo will be his final tournament before retirement, meaning a first-round defeat would end one of the most important careers in Asian tennis history. From a purely competitive perspective, it is a brutal draw. From almost every other perspective though, Tiafoe feels strangely perfect for the occasion.

Is Tiafoe the Perfect Man to Send Nishikori Off?

Tiafoe Will Understand Exactly What This Match Is

Some players could walk into Ariake Coliseum, put their headphones on, treat the evening like another first round, and leave the emotional stuff for everybody else. Not this guy. Tiafoe has never been that kind of guy.

The American has built much of his own identity around crowds and occasions. The ATP has described him as one of the tour's great performers, somebody whose personality and tennis tend to expand when an arena becomes louder. His relationship with the US Open crowd has become particularly famous, and Tiafoe himself has repeatedly spoken about feeding off that energy.

Tokyo should provide plenty of it. Nishikori is far from simply a retiring veteran receiving a wild card at his home tournament. He is the most successful Japanese men's player of the Open Era, a former No. 4, a 12-time ATP Tour champion and the first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final.

He also has history at this particular tournament. Nishikori won Tokyo in 2012 and 2014, finished runner-up in 2018, and owns a 24-9 record at the event. It's no coincidence he's deciding to end it here. Tiafoe will understand that.

Back in July, months before the draw, he was asked about Nishikori's retirement. Tiafoe spoke warmly about him, calling himself a big fan and describing Nishikori as one of the nicest players around. He also joked that he hoped they would meet before the end because Nishikori had beaten him in their only previous match and he wanted another chance before the Japanese star disappeared.

The draw apparently listened. They last met in Vienna in 2018, when Nishikori won 7-6 5-7 6-2. Eight years later, they get one more.

It Should Still Feel Like a Proper Tennis Match

That might actually be the nicest part of this pairing. Tiafoe is not arriving as some ceremonial opponent. In many ways, he is playing arguably the best tennis of his career. The 28-year-old reached the Cincinnati final before making another deep run at the US Open, where he reached the semi-finals for the third time. That stretch helped take him to a career-high No. 8.

So if this is the end for Nishikori, it will not be because somebody gently escorted him towards retirement. He will have to play a top-ten opponent who wants to beat him, and that matters.

Sometimes there's something slightly uncomfortable about farewell matches when the occasion overwhelms the competition itself. The crowd wants one outcome, everybody knows what the evening represents, and the actual tennis begins to feel secondary.

Tiafoe is almost uniquely equipped to avoid that. He will play, and he will compete, but he won't diminish the occasion in any way because that's just who he is as a player. And if the atmosphere becomes emotional, he is unlikely to spend the evening pretending not to notice it.

There is room for both. Nishikori deserves a serious opponent in his final tournament. He also deserves someone who can recognize that thousands of people inside the stadium are not simply watching a first-round ATP 500 match. They may be saying goodbye.

Tiafoe understands theatre better than most tennis players, without usually letting the theatre replace the tennis. That should come in handy.

Of course, Nishikori may ruin the entire farewell narrative by winning. That would be pretty funny but in some ways also fitting. His career has contained enough comebacks from injuries and enough stubborn deciding-set victories that one more would hardly feel inappropriate.

Even at 36, even with his ranking down after years of physical problems, a part of the Tokyo crowd will hope the goodbye can be postponed for another round. Tiafoe will be trying to prevent that, and he should.

He knows what Nishikori has meant to Japanese tennis. He knows this could be the final match. He likes big crowds, embraces unusual occasions and appears genuinely fond of the man standing across the net.

He is also No. 8 in the world and good enough to make sure Nishikori has to produce something special if he wants another night. Maybe that is about as appropriate as a final opponent can be. If Nishikori wins, Tokyo gets to celebrate him once more. If he loses, Frances Tiafoe seems like exactly the sort of person who will know when the match has stopped being about him.

Main Photo Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect