Former Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios has been on the sidelines for quite some time now because of fitness issues and the Aussie has now revealed that he has made a “60 or 70% recovery while adding that his participation at Melbourne Park will be a challenge as he face a race against time to appear for the home major in January next year.
Kyrgios admitted that he is still far from fit and has to do a lot of work to complete a comeback but ignited hope by saying that the he still has hunger and fire to return to the top of his game once again.
After an impressive 2022 season, Kyrgios has had a troubled body which kept him out of action for the most part of this year, with him losing his only competitive meeting with Wu Yibing in the European grass swing in Stuttgart earlier in June.
The Canberra-native has endured setbacks after undergoing knee surgery in January while also injuring his wrist in a bid to comeback after the clay swing. The poor and slow recovery of knee injury coupled with the unfit wrist forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon and then North American hard court swing and thus effectively decimating his latter half of the season.
Kyrgios maintained an impressive 37-10 (78.7%) win-loss record in 2022 that saw him reach the Wimbledon final, winning Washington and making quarterfinals at Indian Wells, Canadian Open and US Open. He also registered semifinal appearances in Houston, Halle and Stuttgart while compiling six top 10 wins.
The 28-year-old sat with Wide World of Sports for an interview and talked about his competitive fire amid physical struggles and the goal to still fight for Grand Slams.
“I look at my career and I look back at that year in 2022 and next year I’m still hungry, which is good. I’ve been on the professional tour now for almost 10 years, and to still have that hunger and fire to get back to the top and have a year like that, is always healthy,” said the 28-year-old.
“It’s not always natural that someone continually stays hungry and wants to get back there. That’s first and foremost the most important thing. I just want to get my body all right. I want to go out there feeling as if I’m able to compete for Grand Slams again.
“I don’t just wanna participate in tournaments because I definitely do feel like I’m a player who can compete for Grand Slams, so I want to be able to just make sure that I’m coming back with that hunger. Then just my health, I just want to take my time and be healthy and come back and give the people the tennis that I was playing in 2022.
“If I didn’t feel as if I had much left in the tank, I’d probably just hang it up. I still feel as if I’m in some of my physical prime. I feel like my level is still one of the best in the world. So it’s just belief in my game.
“I know what I’m able to do and I’ve got a lot of people around me and close to me that believe in my ability as well and I think that’s super important. I’m just going to take it day by day and just get back to where I was.”
The Maverick Aussie however ceased to offer any update about his return at home Slam in January 2024 as he also confessed that he is currently at 60-70% in terms of fitness and conditioning.
“There’s still a lot of work to do. I had some more setbacks after my knee coming back the first time. It was just not where I wanted to be and it was still causing me a lot of pain,” Kyrgios continued.
“I’ve been around the world with my rehab, seen some people that I hadn’t seen previously for my knee and getting different opinions. Obviously parts of other parts of my body were starting to feel sore and I was getting a couple of niggles here or there as well. My right wrist type of thing, just because I was compensating.
“From where I was prior to the surgery to now is a big improvement, so I guess that’s all I can kind of focus on at the moment. Just being really diligent with rehab. It’s quite a serious surgery where I just need to take my time. I need to be a bit patient. Just patience was the keyword really.
“Just being able to trust in the process of: ‘OK, your left knee is not gonna feel brand new, but it’s still more than capable of holding up in the Wimbledons and the Australian Opens.’ I just need to trust that and get it to a point where I feel confident again, just confidence in the body is a big thing.”