The Australian Open 2023 is already on, and the best players in the world are competing to win the first major of the year. However, local Nick Kyrgios won’t be one of them, despite being on the draft after he withdrew before the first round match.
Kyrgios positioned himself as one of the favorites to take the tournament home, especially after he got the best results of his career last year. In the 2022 edition, he won the doubles title alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis.
After that, the 27-year-old also reached his first GS singles final in Wimbledon (losing to Novak Djokovic), and won the Citi Open. After the release of Netflix’s new docuseries ‘Break Point’, everyone was expecting his performance this year.
Why did Nick Kyrgios withdraw from the Australian Open 2023?
Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open on Monday (Jan. 16th) due to a knee injury, as he feels a “constant pain.” He will be replaced by lucky loser Denis Kudla, who will face Roman Safiullin in the first round. Kyrgios expressed his disappointment, per the ATP Tour official website:
“Yeah, I’m devastated obviously. It’s like my home tournament. I’ve had some great memories here. Obviously last year winning the title in doubles and playing the best tennis of my life probably. Then going into this event as one of the favorites, it’s brutal. All I can do now is just look forward, do what I need to do and come back,” he said.
“Obviously this coming around is just bad timing. But that’s life. Injury is a part of the sport,”Kyrgios said. “Look, I’m not doubting I will be back to my full strength and playing the tennis I was playing prior to this event,” he added.
Per the same source, his physio Will Maher said that the injury isn’t “career threatening” and that Kyrgios “tried everything” so he could play, but he wouldn’t be 100 percent fit. He also explained that Kyrgios will “have an arthroscopic procedure to clean up his lateral meniscus and remove the paralabral cyst.”