Nick Kyrgios’ return to tennis locked in for Brisbane, ahead of the Australian Open
With his two biggest weapons still in his arsenal, Nick Kyrgios is plotting his return to the top of tennis. He tells EMMA GREENWOOD what Novak Djokovic said to help make his comeback a reality.
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They’re the seven words from the most successful tennis player of all time that may have spurred the second chapter of Nick Kyrgios’s career.
Kyrgios will make his return to competitive tennis at the Brisbane International in December, capping an 18-month absence from the sport with a wrist held together with a “piece of string” after a torturous reconstruction.
When something as simple as carrying a bag of groceries could induce severe pain, there were no guarantees Kyrgios would ever be able to return to his best — a level that took him to a Wimbledon final where he lost a right match to Novak Djokovic.
The 29-year-old was content to walk away and concentrate on a burgeoning commentary career but an offhand comment from Djokovic when the pair practised together at Wimbledon earlier this year spurred his comeback.
“I think when I was hitting with Novak at Wimbledon and he said to me: ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve had surgery’, that, for me, was a big motivation to say, well, maybe I’m actually making some inroads and making some progress into getting back,” Kyrgios said.
“Because I didn’t really know (how I was progressing).
“He just kind of said it on a drink break. So that was a big driver for me.
“If he didn’t say that, I don’t know if I would be motivated and if I would have kept pushing on the court but that was definitely a big part of the journey when he said that to me as well.”
Kyrgios outlined the gruelling journey to get back to full fitness following surgery that was never a guaranteed fix.
“It was a wrist reconstruction, so there were four holes drilled in my hand and there’s a piece of string, kind of holding my wrist together,” he said.
“My fingers, literally, they looked like sausages when I got out of the surgery, I remember it.
“I was in a cast for about 12 weeks, no movement, and I basically just had to relearn how to use my right wrist again - even just carrying grocery bags, anything was super painful.
“So it was literally, you know, from day one, just feeding fluffy balls (into a ball machine to hit) and then building up slowly to a normal tennis ball.
“It’s not yet 18 months since surgery (but) it’s been a miraculous turn of events from that nine month mark to now, it’s been basically a full recovery.”
Kyrgios has made his mark as the rebel without a care — but he revealed just how much it had hurt to have to battle injury at his peak.
“I really wish I didn’t get the injuries that I got after making the finals of Wimbledon, the quarter-finals of the US Open, I … could taste the grand slam, I was so close,” he said.
“I found what worked for me. I think that as tennis players, when you find what works, the routines, you know, winning became a culture in our team, and then winning just became so normal.
“And then I really wish I didn’t have to get injured like that.”
Kyrgios says his game hasn’t been affected by the reconstruction.
He’ll never be able to do a push-up again, and his ability to control the soft volley with his wrist taped may be frustrating.
But his serve and forehand — the massive weapons that took him to the cusp of a major title — remain the same.
He’s not promising a grand slam title - not straight away anyway.
But the entertainer is back - and he wants people to feel something when he plays.
“I know that there are a lot of people that enjoy watching my tennis, and equally, there are people that are frustrated about it,” he said.
“But that’s sport, and I think that’s what sport needs, and arguably, that’s what the game of tennis is missing right now.
“I think there’s a lot of players that play similarly - and everyone likes each other and I just don’t see that in sport as a healthy thing.
“I think there needs to be a bit of, you know, bad blood, and that’s what makes it exciting.
“I’m not going to say, I’m going to go out here and start trash talking every player I play against.
“But to bring that grit and that dog back into the tennis world … I think at the moment, it’s a bit lost for that.”
KYRGIOS LOCKS IN RETURN TO AUSSIE TENNIS
— Julian Linden
No Roger. No Rafa. No worries.
The Australian summer of tennis has an even wilder headline act returning to the court that no-one with a pulse will want to miss.
After 18 months on the sidelines, Nick Kyrgios will make his long-awaited comeback to professional tennis in Australia in the last week of 2024.
Love him or loathe him, the hot-headed Aussie is still the most watchable player in the sport so his return to the Brisbane International, starting Dec 29, will be box-office gold.
“Nick, who has had success here in the past, will kick off his 2025 comeback in Brisbane and I am excited, as I know all tennis fans will be, to see him back on court showcasing his best tennis and entertaining the crowds in a way that only Nick can,” Brisbane’s tournament director Cam Pearson said.
That’s really just a polite way of saying, ‘strap yourself in folks, he’s back’ because no-one in tennis is as captivating and unpredictable as the temperamental Kyrgios.
Immensely talented but with a short-fuse that often lights up without warning, Kyrgios has vowed to give everything he has left to achieve his unfulfilled life’s ambition of winning a grand slam singles title.
At 29, he’s still young enough to do it but has been given a rude reminder of how injuries can strike at any time, having undergone knee and wrist operations that have kept him off the court since his magical run to the 2022 Wimbledon final.
Frustratingly, he’s only played one match in the last few years - a short-lived return to grass at Stuttgart in June 2023 - raising doubts whether he would ever make it back, but he insists he is fit again and hungrier than ever to get back into the swing.
“I’m far from done to be honest. I’m in the later stages of my career but I still have one or two years left… I’m feeling extremely well,” he told this masthead in a wide-ranging interview.
“I’m hitting for around three hours every day now. My wrist from surgery has completely healed and I’m feeling motivated.”
Kyrgios made a cameo return by playing an exhibition match in New York in August and has also signed up to play at the World Tennis League event in Abu Dhabi in December, but the Brisbane International will be the first test of where his game is at.
Although the Australian hardcourts aren’t as accommodating to his serve and volley game as the green grass of Wimbledon, Kyrgios has still had plenty of success at home, winning the Brisbane International in 2018 then teaming up with his good mate Thanasi Kokkinakis to win the Australian open doubles title in 2022.
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