Nick Kyrgios called for a press conference on Monday and announced that he wouldn’t be available for the Australian Open 2023. The Australian became the first player to pull out of the tournament without even playing a ball.
Nick had earlier played a practice match against Novak Djokovic in Red Lover arena but was seen struggling with the knee injury. The home fans had a lot of doubt in regard to his participation as it was evident Nick’s knee injury was bad and he had pulled out from warm-up events earlier in Adelaide.
The dreams about watching him play at Melbourne Park came crashing as the star on Monday hastily called a press conference and addressed that he would not feature in this Australian Open.
The move came as a shocker for the fans as their favourite home star was scheduled to lock horns against Roman Safiullin in the tournament’s first round singles match on Tuesday.
Nick, a 27-year-old from Canberra, Australia was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Wimbledon’s last year 2022. Nick is said to sometimes be exceptionally brilliant while sometimes he seems to be very disinterested. He was seen having one of the best serves in tennis. His frequent first serve usually clocks 220 kph while his second is about 200kmph. Nick won the doubles championship of the 2022 Australian Open last year pairing with his old friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. He was expected to pair with him again and defend his title this year but is pulling out due to an unfortunate knee injury.
Nick was “devastated” by pulling out. His left knee was injured for a while now. His physio explained the media that he has a tear in his lateral meniscus and a cyst was growing there. He would need an arthroscopic surgery. Nick was Australia’s strongest chance to win at Melbourne Park as no other Australian player has won the trophy since 1976. He did feature in the practice match against Djokovic but didn’t pull up that great.
A disappointed Nick had to face the media
Nick seemed clearly disappointed in the press conference. He looked downcast and was often seen covering his face with a hand while talking to the media. His therapist Maher was seen calming and re-assuring the injured player. Nick also added pointing to his left knee that every time he took a serve, there was a lump and that felt to grow eventually bigger. He said that there is an additional pressure on his knee due to the lump and hinders his movement. He also said that surgery would be the only option to remove the lump.
Maher his physio, later took over and told the media that the developed cyst was not career threatening and the star player could recover and return to competition at Indian Wells, California in March. Kyrgios but stated that he was extremely disappointed of not playing at home and he had reached the finals and won the doubles championship at home. He also said that he had played the best tennis of life at home and was eager to repeat his performance for home fans.
Nick has to even unfortunately forego his chance of defending his grand slam double’s title this time. He had partnered with his friend Kokkinakis and had scripted history by lifting the trophy but would not get a chance to defend his title in the doubles tournament this year. Due to this injury and missing the tournament, the currently ranked No.13 would also take a tumble in the double’s ATP rankings.
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