Tennis world fearing the worst for Kyrgios amid ‘cameo’ truth bomb

The tennis world is nervously watching Nick Kyrgios amid fears history could repeat three years after he last played at the Australian Open.

All eyes are on Nick Kyrgios on the eve of the Australian Open amid fears a niggling injury could delay his return to grand slam tennis.

Kyrgios trained at Melbourne Park on Saturday after he pulled out of a charity match against Novak Djokovic earlier in the week, citing a grade one abdominal strain.

A similar injury forced Alex de Minaur to miss the 2020 Australian Open.

He was in good spirits hitting with fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson as his girlfriend and Lleyton and Cruz Hewitt watched on.

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The 29-year-old Australian hasn’t played the Australian Open since 2022 — he withdrew from the 2023 tournament due to a knee injury. He later underwent surgery to remove a cyst in his knee.

Kyrgios hasn’t played a grand slam since the 2022 US Open where his career best season ended with a loss in the quarterfinals to Karen Khachanov.

The mercurial Australian has been drawn to play Great Britain’s World No. 86 Jacob Fearnley in the first round on Monday night.

A supercomputer has given Kyrgios a zero per cent chance of winning the Australian Open, with World No. 1 Jannik Sinner rated a 51.6 per cent chance of defending his title.

The Prime Casino calculations give de Minaur a 0.6 per cent chance of going all the way.

Nick Kyrgios of Australia. Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson share a laugh during their practice session on Saturday. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey believes it won’t necessarily be a massive blow to the Australian Open if Kyrgios was to pull out of his home grand slam.

“Nick is one of those great, polarising characters, he’s not going to be apologetic about it,” Petchey told JeffBet.

“He’s going to feel as though he’s entitled and authentic in what he wants to do. I personally don’t think it will be that big a miss for the tournament.

“I’m not entirely sure that he’s got enough matches under the belt to make a huge run at the Australian Open and I think that we should celebrate people that are potentially going to be champions rather than people going to make cameos.”

Lleyton and Cruz Hewitt watch Nick Kyrgios train. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

Availability is sometimes the best ability in sport and time is running out for Kyrgios to win a grand slam before injuries end his career early.

His best Australian Open result is a quarterfinals appearance back in 2015.

“Obviously Nick is one of the most talented players in the generation and I don’t say that lightly, given what we’ve seen in the last 20 years,” Petchey added.

“To put him right up there, that’s how I feel about him as a tennis player, I’ve always said that he’s got one of the top five serves of all time. Obviously if he puts his best tennis on the court, he can do a lot of damage at tournaments.

“I would say I look at someone like Jacob Fearnley might get overwhelmed in that situation.

“It might be too big an occasion for him if Nick takes to the court but I think I would celebrate somebody like Jacob coming out of college and making the strides that he has and the manner that he has as an equally important part of our publicity of the sport to say. I want to say that this is how you can also play this sport.

“It doesn’t have to be the other way all the time for us to go, this is what we need. What we need is different characters. We need a lot of personalities, but we definitely need people like Jacob Fearnley as much as we need people like Nick Kyrgios.”

Nick Kyrgios is under an injury cloud heading into the Aus Open. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

Tennis pundits aren’t holding out too much hope for Kyrgios to make a deep run at his home grand slam, given he is coming back wrist surgery and it’s been several years since he’s played a best-of-five-sets match at a grand slam.

“I do like Nick, I like him a lot,” 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson told news.com.au this week at the Asics Summit in Melbourne.

“He’s very different but I think he’s good for tennis. I’m very happy to see him back. I just hope his body holds up. I love to see him play so I’m happy to see him.”

Australia’s top ranked men’s player Alex de Minaur will carry the hopes of the locals, as he looks to become the first Aussie male to win the Australian Open since Mark Edmondson in 1976.

A date with Jannik Sinner awaits in the quarterfinals if de Minaur can get past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round.

Kyrgios this week praised de Minaur for his ability to handle the pressure of being Australia’s top ranked player.

“To see how well he’s taken it upon himself to be our No. 1 player for the last three or four years … to deal with everything, the pressure of being our No. 1 player. I was there – I didn’t always deal with it the best,” Kyrgios said.

“He’s been a ridiculously good role model. I genuinely think he’s a threat at any grand slam and any tournament he plays.

“He’s got a chance to win a slam for sure … he’s improved little things in his game where I thought he needed to improve, he’s done that.”

With NCA Newswire

Originally published as Tennis world fearing the worst for Kyrgios amid ‘cameo’ truth bomb