Kei Nishikori Announces Positive COVID Test, Withdraws From Cincinnati, US Open In Doubt

by Staff | August 16th, 2020, 3:35 pm
  • 6 Comments

Kei Nishikori will not play the Cincinnati Masters after the former Top 5 announced today that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

“I have some unfortunate news,” the 30-year-old Nishikori said in a statement. “This morning while still in Florida, I got tested for Covid19 and tested positive. I will have to pull out of the Cincinnati tournament at this time.

“Me and my team will get tested again on Friday at which point I will have another update.

“I am feeling well and have very little symptoms but will obviously be in complete isolation for the safety of everyone.

“We were planning to fly to New York tomorrow but will obviously now stay in Florida.”

Nishikori becomes the first high profile player to contract the virus in over a month.

The US Open is set to begin two weeks from tomorrow, so he could get clear of the virus in time to play the event where he once made the finals.


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6 Comments for Kei Nishikori Announces Positive COVID Test, Withdraws From Cincinnati, US Open In Doubt

chrisford1 Says:

Not because Nishikori is Asian, but because his catching it prompted thoughts on the growing speculation in some Asians appearing to have some immunity. And possible discovery of the specific source.

Two scientists in America found the masters thesis of a doctor that treated 6 miners who became infected cleaning out a new mineshaft running through a cave full of bats in 2012. Their sickness was identified as a possible new SARs infection they apparantly got cleaning hundreds of tons of bat guano and debris from the shaft. 3 died. An array of samples were taken from the miners, noted that a new coronavirus had “crossed over” to infect people at the Mojiang mine in Yunnan China. The samples were sent 1,000 miles away to the Wuhan Virological Institute.
The scientists believe way the infection started was it escaped the lab after scientists there had worked these samples and cultivated them.
And it is looking like a large number of Asians in S China and the Southeast Asian communities have excellent to limited immunity from CV-19. Not surprising since archaic peoples in that region lived in heavily bat infested caves for 80,000 years. Vietnamese apparently have enough people with immunity that they had herd immunity from this from the start.
Nishikori, northern Asian ancestry, is not in that Asian group with limited to full immunity.


lylenubbins Says:

Interesting . . . BTW am I correct that aside from Dimitrov, who had flu-like symptoms, none of the pther payers who tested positive have had symptoms?


j-kath Says:

In the UK, Asians are definitely one of the top groups who are the most vulnerable to Covid-19 …..when they get it very few recover.


Wog Boy Says:

JK,
I think CF1 is talking about different Asians, if I am not wrong UK term “Asian” refers to people from subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) in Aussie and American English term “Asian” excludes people from subcontinent and refers to Chinese, Korean, Japanese and SE Asian countries.


chrisford1 Says:

That is right, Wog Boy. Though left wing anthropologists these days claim race is an “artificial social construct” , DNA and shared behavioral & physical features and simple common sense made it easy to distinguish three main races, mixtures, and in pre-DNA days, trying to figure where pygmies, Bushmen, and the “Aborigines” fit in.
Because of PC, actually, complaints by Asians that calling them Mongoloid when Mongoloid was also a descriptor of signs of mental retardation was an insult, they were called Asians instead. And everyone on the Subcontinent before Partition was Indian, part of the Caucasian grouping along with Arabs, most Hispanics, etc. And everybody was happy until leftists began dominating anthropology departments and declared that race doesn’t exist and anyone who argued otherwise should be denied tenure.
Immunity in SE Asians inc. most of S China helps explain in part why CV-19 never really took off there. And just as importantly, why the coronavirus never infected local populations that came in contact with the bats. Which in the future might be a reason not to take viruses out of a region for “research” just assuming it must be not a big pandemic threat because the locals didn’t catch it.
BACK TO TENNIS:
Sasha Zverev and Novak looked good in a practice at Arthur Ashe they had an 8 minute clip of. Another clip of Djokovic smacking balls up to Zverev way up in the stands. Both right at him, and caught. The WTA ladies seem to be avoiding the USO more than expected, the men’s field is strong. Fed was already done for the season, Rafa was already making noises about skipping the USO in March to focus on clay.
Djokovic’s weeks at #1 ATP counter resumes. He is at 282 weeks now. There will probably be debate about the 20 weeks he lost due to Covid so far. I think he would have stayed #1, personally, without the virus, through to Shanghai. But I agree with the call to suspend accumulating records when the ATP was officially shut down. Had to do it when no points could be added, other players points challenged.


j-kath Says:

Yep Gentlemen: “Asians” in the UK constitute one group when stats. are presented. They also split ALL men vs. women in a column (more men than women) and then “Age” is another group presented by age-group divisions. Alas, there seems to be a recent swing to the younger generation….although they have a higher recovery rate.

Fingers crossed for Andy Murray – would be great to see him win a couple of matches.

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