Wrist injury forces Nishikori out of Cincinnati Masters

Japanese tennis star Kei Nishikori has become the latest player in top 10 to be ruled out of the this week's Cincinnati Masters due to a long-standing right wrist injury.

The 27-year-old was due to kick start his US Open warm-up event in the men's singles second round as the fifth seed and for that he had also flown to the host city Cincinnati before eventually deciding to pull out.

Announcing the news, Nishikori said that he unfortunately would not be able to play in the upcoming tournament as he has been going through some sharp pain in his right wrist.

"Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Cincy. Today (Sunday) during practice I felt a sharp pain in my right wrist and we are now visiting with the medical specialists to discuss the diagnosis. We will provide more details after we have more information,"Sport24 quoted Nishikori as saying.

Nishikori has been struggling with nagging wrist pain throughout this season, knocking out in the quarterfinals at the Miami Open in March before the complaint forced him to forfeit his quarter-final matchup against Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open in May.

Recently, he also bowed out of the Rogers Cup after going down against Gael Monfils in the last-32 of the men's singles event.

World number one Andy Murray, last year's champion Marin Cilic, US Open winner Stan Wawrinka and 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic had all withdrawn from the event through injury.