MIAMI - Kei Nishikori's return to competitive tennis suffered an early blow on Thursday when the former-Miami Open finalist was swept out of the opening round 6-3 6-4 by Austrian Sebastian Ofner.

Seeing his first action since last July and playing his first Masters 1000 event in nearly three years, the injury prone Nishikori was unable to produce the energetic form that took him to the 2014 U.S. Open final and number four in the world rankings.