Kei Nishikori was a special talent destined for stardom long before Michael Chang was credited with transforming the Japanese trailblazer into a grand slam title contender.
Nishikori arrived in his first major final on Saturday in spectacular fashion with a 6-4 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 US Open upset win over world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
But the 24-year-old’s journey to Sunday’s championship showdown with big-serving Croatian Marin Cilic began almost two decades ago when he first picked up a tennis racquet at age five.
The son of a piano-playing mother and engineer father, Nishikori was whisked away to Florida as a 14-year-old who couldn’t speak a word of English and groomed at the famed Nick Bollettieri Academy.
On the same courts that Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles and the like developed their future grand slam-winning games, Nishikori rapidly emerged to become a junior French Open doubles champion.
Coached early on by Brad Gilbert, Agassi’s one-time mentor, Nishikori was dubbed “Project 45” during his pursuit to better the world No.45 ranking of Japan’s most successful men’s player, Shuzo Matsuoka.
He showed signs it wouldn’t take long in 2008 when, at 18 years, one month and 19 days old, Nishikori became the youngest player to win an ATP title since Lleyton Hewitt (16 years, 10 months, 18 days) a decade earlier in Adelaide.
The title breakthrough as a qualifier at Delray Beach earned Nishikori that year’s ATP Newcomer of Year award.
An elbow injury ruined his 2009 season and, after spending 2010 climbing back up the rankings, Nishikori achieved his first major goal in October 2011.
After a run to the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, Nishikori shot from No.47 to 30th in the world, completing Project 45.
More milestones followed – the first Japanese man to make the top 20, the first since Matsuoka to make a grand slam quarter-final – before he convinced Chang to coach him after suffering a depressing first-round loss last year in New York to a lowly-ranked qualifier.
The former French Open champion came on board last December, joining long-time coach Dante Bottini in Nishikori’s corner.
Despite more injury setbacks slowing his progress, the new coaching partnership sparked a breakout 2014 season for the 24-year-old.
He cracked the top 10 for the first time after toppling Roger Federer in the Miami Masters quarter-finals in April before pulling out of his scheduled semi against Djokovic with a groin injury.
Undeterred, Nishikori became the first Japanese player in the 46-year professional era to win a claycourt title in Barcelona before a back injury forced him to retire from a Madrid Masters final in which he was dominating red-dirt king Rafael Nadal.
The loss ended a 14-match claycourt winning streak, but his consolation was another new career-high ranking of No.9 in the world.
Another injury, this time requiring the removal of a cyst near his toe, restricted Nishikori to only three matches between Wimbledon and the US Open.
But once again the setback has proven nothing more than that, with Nishikori now the first Asian man in tennis history to make a grand slam singles final.
Like Chang before him, Nishikori continues to punch above his weight physically but he credits the one-time world No.2’s tough task mastering for adding the missing mental steel.
“Him and Dante are working really well and I feel my tennis is changing little more. I’m aggressive and playing with more confidence,” Nishikori said.
“He’s tough, but I sometimes needed something. Some people can push me well and, yeah, it’s been working really well I think.”
