Nick Kyrgios has revealed there was an 85 per cent chance he could have retired during his lengthy injury layoff.
The Australian tennis star is preparing to make a comeback for the 2025 season after spending two years sidelined, undergoing knee and wrist surgeries.
Kyrgios will be back in action at an exhibition event next month before returning to the tennis tour in Australia next year.
The 29-year-old was enjoying a career-best season when the injuries first started to bother him. In 2022, Kyrgios won the Australian Open doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis before reaching his first Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon.
But he was forced to pull out of the Japan Open in October and has been struggling physically ever since. Kyrgios took up other roles, commentating on matches for the BBC and Eurosport, but last month he officially confirmed he’d be making a comeback.
Three surgeries later, the former world No. 13 is finally feeling good. “Honestly, this is probably the best I’ve felt in two years,” he told 9News.
“I played that amazing year in 2022. Then at the finals in Wimbledon and US Open that’s when I started feeling some issues in my wrist. I had that wrist reconstruction and now I’m feeling amazing.”
Kyrgios is set to compete in his home Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, for the first time in three years. And he admitted that doctors gave him a very slim chance of ever returning to competition, leaving him at risk of early retirement from the sport.
He added: “It was a 15 miracle per cent chance that I was going to get back to playing at this level and here we are. To get back out there in front of the home fans is going to be sick.”
Kyrgios underwent knee surgery in early 2023 and tried to come back in June, playing and losing one match in Stuttgart. But he injured his wrist in the process and quickly found himself back on the sidelines.
The seven-time title winner questioned whether he’d ever be back on a match court but refused to let an injury retire him. “Physically it was brutal. Mentally, I wasn’t going to allow myself [to give up],” he continued.
“I always have wanted to leave the game of tennis myself. I wasn’t going to let this injury be the dictator of if I would ever play again.”
It took a long time for Kyrgios to relearn the basics following his wrist surgery, with specialists surprised to even see him playing again. “I honestly didn’t feel improvement in my wrist,” he said.
“I started hitting fluffy balls that under-10s used to learn on. I had to teach my right wrist all over again.”
With his comeback looming, Kyrgios stated: “I’ve already won in my eyes. Now everything I do on the tennis court whether I win a match or a tournament or anything like that is going to be a bonus.”
