Nick Kyrgios says he is confident of making his return to tennis in time for next year’s Australian Open, but has hinted that retirement is on the horizon.
The enigmatic Aussie tennis star, who made the 2022 Wimbledon final, has not played a single match for almost 500 days while battling serious knee and wrist injuries.
His last match dates all the way back to June 13, 2023, when he lost in straight sets to China’s Yibing Wu.
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That was his only appearance for 2023, having pulled out of the Australian Open earlier that year.
Doubts have long emerged that Kyrgios would ever get back to competitive tennis on tour.
But in an Instagram live broadcast on Tuesday, the 29-year-old said he will be back for the Australian Open next year, and hopes to play some warm-up events in the lead-up.
Just minutes later though, a cryptic Instagram post had fans questioning how long Kyrgios had left in the game.
“Tennis … damn … it’s been A CRAZY JOURNEY!!!! It all started because of you. FOREVER GRATEFUL. I love all my FANS. There are only a few chapters left,” he wrote.
“Go out with a bang and on your terms Kygs, excited to see what’s up your sleeve,” one fan commented.
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Appearing to be on the road to recovery, Kyrgios appeared at the UTS event in New York in August where he won an entertaining, albeit modified, clash with Casper Ruud.
He said then that he surprised himself.
“I wasn’t expecting to play this well at all,” he said.
“Coming out here and still having that level, it’s amazing. What a way to come back.
“I’ve been putting in some serious work, every single day back home.
“Obviously pretty emotional, it’s been a brutal 11 months. I didn’t know if I was going to play tennis again with the state of my wrist. It was literally conversations of never playing again.”
Despite largely not playing for two years, Kyrgios has remained vocal within the sport, on his own platforms, and as an expert commentator on ESPN.
Kyrgios was particularly critical of the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) decision not to ban world No.1 Jannik Sinner for testing positive twice to a banned anabolic steroid in March.
Sinner was stripped of $US325,000 ($A482,300) prize money and 400 ranking points earned at the Masters tournament in Indian Wells, California, but will not be suspended after an independent tribunal said it was not intentional.
“Ridiculous — whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned substance … you should be gone for two years. Your performance was enhanced,” Kyrgios said on social media.
Hitting back at a replier who tried to defend Sinner, Kyrgios scoffed: “Accidental? You truly believe that the physio rubbed physio cream onto a cut that made him fail two anabolic steroid tests. C’mon potato.”
Sinner tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol during the event, in which he reached the semi-final, and eight days later.