Kei Nishikori records milestone 300th hard-court win of career with Davis Cup tie clincher

It’s already been a strong start to the year for Kei Nishikori, highlighted by reaching his first ATP final since 2019 in Hong Kong—and in four short weeks, he’s already jumped from No. 106 to No. 70.

And the good news just keeps coming for the former world No. 4, as he just recorded the 300th hard-court win of his career.

It came at a monumental time, too—he defeated Billy Harris, 6-2, 6-3, in the fifth and deciding rubber of Japan’s Davis Cup Qualifiers first-round tie against Great Britain on Saturday, sending his team into the second round of the team competition, to be held in September.

Nishikori is only the 26th man in the entire Open Era to reach 300 career hard-court wins—and even more impressively, just the second man born in 1989 or later to do it, after Grigor Dimitrov.

Nishikori was born in 1989, Dimitrov in 1991.

Below is the full list, with active players in bold.

MEN WITH 300+ HARD-COURT WINS (tour-level, Open Era):

• 783: Roger Federer
• 716: Novak Djokovic
• 592: Andre Agassi
• 518: Rafael Nadal
• 503: Andy Murray
• 490: Jimmy Connors
• 429: Pete Sampras
• 426: Andy Roddick
• 415: Michael Chang
• 401: Tomas Berdych
• 399: Ivan Lendl
• 386: Gael Monfils
• 382: Stefan Edberg
• 372: Lleyton Hewitt
• 366: Marin Cilic
• 358: Richard Gasquet
• 351: John Isner
• 346: David Ferrer
• 343: Tommy Haas
• 336: Stan Wawrinka
• 322: Brad Gilbert
• 317: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
• 312: Grigor Dimitrov
• 311: Juan Martin del Potro
• 301: Gilles Simon
• 300: Kei Nishikori

Japan and Great Britain faced off over the last two days on the indoor hard courts of the Bourbon Beans Dome in Miki, Japan, and they were locked at 1-1 after Day 1 wrapped up, with Yoshihito Nishioka beating Harris, 7-5, 6-1, then Nishikori falling to Jacob Fearnley, 6-3, 6-3.

They split the first two rubbers on Day 2, too, with Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski defeating Yosuke Watanuki and Takero Yuzuki in the doubles rubber, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), then Nishioka avenging Nishikori’s defeat from the day before by defeating Fearnley, 6-3, 7-6 (0).

So it all came down to Nishikori and Harris, and it was the 2014 US Open finalist who came through in straight sets, sending Japan in the next round, where they’ll play the winner of Germany against Israel.