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Nick Kyrgios - US Open 2022

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Nick Kyrgios claims he ‘almost needs a miracle’ to play Australian Open

Matthew Johns
Matthew Johns
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Nick Kyrgios has admitted that ‘the reality kind of set in’ about his wrist injury, after playing his first singles match in 18 months at the Brisbane International.Kyrgios had only played one match in the past two seasons, after struggling with knee, foot and most recently a wrist injury that had kept him away from the
ATP Tour.The Australian officially returned to singles competition yesterday in Brisbane, losing out to young French star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, 6(2)-7 7-6(4) 6(3)-7.During the match against Perricard, Kyrgios appearing to be feeling discomfort in his surgically repaired wrist and strapped it up with tape during a change of ends. When speaking after the match, Kyrgios suggested that he had doubts about his wrist holding up playing a best-of-five set match at the Australian Open.”I was, like, really excited for the Oz [Australian] Open, but after today – obviously I’m super excited. If I’m able to play, I’m able to play – but the reality kind of set in to me,” said Kyrgios. “That’s a best-of-three match with my wrist. “Not only is a Grand Slam mentally really draining, you’re there for two-and-a-half, three weeks, physically a grind. It’s one of the hardest thing to do in any sport, to win a Grand Slam in men’s tennis.” The former
Wimbledon finalist added, “I think I almost need a miracle and I need the stars to align for my wrist to hold up in a Grand Slam for sure. Today, if this was a Grand Slam, we may still be out on court, and I don’t know how I’d pull up the next day or the day after. Yeah, that’s kind of the reality setting in.”
Kyrgios did return to the matchcourt today to play doubles alongside Novak Djokovic, losing to top seeds Nikola Mektic and Michael Venus. The 29-year-old will now spend a week recovering away from the matchcourt, before attempting to make his Grand Slam return at the Australian Open that begins on Sunday 12th January.Inside the baseline…Losing to someone like Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is nothing to be ashamed about at all, especially as the Frenchman has such a huge weapon in his serve and hit a total of 36 aces past Nick Kyrgios. We have seen before how much wrist injuries can linger even after going through the recovery process, with Dominic Thiem a perfect example of that having just retired following years of struggling with wrist pain. This will only be heightened for Kyrgios at the Australian Open playing best-of-five set matches, so it will be interesting to see if he chooses to go ahead and compete at his home major.
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