■ Before the singles final, a tribute ceremony was held to honor Kei Nishikori following the conclusion of his final official match. Members of his family attended, along with Masaaki Morita, founder of the Morita Masaaki Tennis Fund, which sent Nishikori to IMG Academy in the United States; former coaches Michael Chang and Dante Bottini; former Davis Cup captain Satoshi Iwabuchi and current captain Go Soeda, with whom Nishikori represented Japan on the international stage; and Shuzo Matsuoka, who has supported Nishikori since he was in elementary school through the “Shuzo Challenge” program. They were invited onto center court to watch the ceremony.

■ Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Carlos Alcaraz, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz also appeared in video messages, praising Nishikori’s achievements and contribution to tennis. Yuji Fukasawa, president of the Japan Tennis Association, presented Nishikori with a Special Honor Award.

■ Chang, Nishikori’s former coach, praised his former pupil, saying, “He had qualities that ordinary players simply don’t have, and I’ve never coached a player who absorbed what he was taught as quickly as he did. He never once said, ‘I don’t want to do it.’ Coaching a player of Kei’s caliber was a wonderful experience.”

■ Morita, who said Nishikori was “like a grandson to me,” delivered his speech with a touch of humor. “When he was 12—the age when I first met him—he left his father and mother and worked incredibly hard on his own. Later, I actually wondered if I had done something terrible to him. But after a year or two, his results just kept getting better and better,” he said.

■ In his final speech, Nishikori expressed his gratitude to Morita and everyone around him, as well as to his parents and older sister. “I was truly fortunate to have been able to pursue such big goals with everything I had,” he said. He also spoke candidly about his feelings after watching the video messages from fellow players: “I love tennis, and watching those messages made me realize that I still really want to play. I have a lot of regrets. I wish I could have achieved a little more. But I’ve had an incredibly enjoyable life in tennis.” He concluded his speech with a message to the tennis community: “First, please let me take a little time to rest. I’ll definitely come back and do something. I want to help Japanese tennis and Asian tennis become stronger.”

(Japan Tennis Association)