lost to Andy Murray in the semifinals in straight sets. He withdrew from the Cincinnati Masters citing fatigue and hip injury, which affected his semifinal match against Murray the previous week. He lost in the first round of the 2015 US Open to Benoît Paire. Nishikori started the Asian Fall by participating in his hometown tournament, Rakuten Japan Open, where he reached the semifinals, including victories over Borna Ćorić, Sam Querrey and Marin Čilić. He was upset in his semifinal match by unseeded Benoît Paire. He reached third rounds of the Shanghai Rolex Masters before losing to Kevin Anderson. He then played in the BNP Paribas Masters. However, he retired in the third round match against Richard Gasquet due to an abdominal injury. Nishikori qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals for the second straight year in a row, clinching eighth place. He defeated Tomáš Berdych, but lost to Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. He failed to qualify for the semifinals, finishing in third place in his group. 2016: Olympic bronze medal Nishikori began the season ranked No. 8. In January, he entered the Brisbane International as the No. 2 seed where he advanced to the quarterfinals with a bye and a straight sets win over Mikhail Kukushkin, but was eventually upset by seventh seed Bernard Tomic in three sets. At the Australian Open, Nishikori was seeded seventh. He began with victories over Philipp Kohlschreiber, Austin Krajicek and Guillermo García López before beating ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach his third Australian Open quarterfinal, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. Nishikori next competed at the Memphis Open where he was seeded first and was the three-time defending champion. Nishikori received a bye into the second round and advanced to the semifinals without dropping a set. In the semifinals, Nishikori beat Sam Querrey in three sets and later beat young American Taylor Fritz in straight sets to win his fourth straight Memphis title and his 11th ATP title overall. He joined Jimmy Connors as the only four-time winners of the event. During the March Masters, Nishikori reached the quarterfinals in the Indian Wells Masters for the first time in his career after defeating Mikhail Kukushkin, Steve Johnson in straight sets and saving a match point against ninth seed John Isner in Nishikori's serve in the third set. He lost to fourth seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets. Nishikori improved his feat by