- Nick Kyrgios will return to a Grand Slam at the Australian Open
- The Australian star has not competed in a major since September 2022
Nick Kyrgios will make his long-awaited Grand Slam return at the Australian Open in January.
The 29-year-old will return to the World Tennis League court this month, having played just one professional tennis match in the last two years due to injury.
He had ruled himself out of the Australian Open in 2023 due to a knee injury that required surgery, before having to withdraw from the French Open that same year with a foot injury.
However, it has now been confirmed that Kyrgios will finally return to a major tennis tournament for the Australian Open next month.
Kyrgios, who will play with a protected rating of 21, will be one of six men and six women using protected ratings at Melbourne Park.
In October, Kyrgios previously stated that he wants to win a Grand Slam and “shut people up.”
Nick Kyrgios is set to make his long-awaited Grand Slam return at the Australian Open
The Australian tennis star has been sidelined for the past year after he had to undergo surgery for a torn ligament in his wrist.
Kyrgios appears to have been working hard to get back to full fitness, telling 9News: “Honestly, this is probably the best I’ve felt in two years.”
He revealed he only had a “15 per cent chance” of playing at his best again, before revealing how difficult his return has been.
“Physically it was brutal,” Kyrgios said. ‘Mentally, I wasn’t going to let myself (give up).
“I always wanted to leave tennis. “I wasn’t going to let this injury determine if I would ever play again.”
The former Wimbledon finalist previously spoke about the severe pain he had felt in his wrist, which left him “unable to open doors or jars”, according to The Canberra Times.
He had suffered a complete tear of the scapholunate ligament in his wrist, a band of tissue that provides strength and stability to a person’s hand.
Since then, he has been taking some innovative measures to get his body back to full strength, revealing that he had even gone so far as to hit fluffy tennis balls used by children.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel any improvement in my wrist,” he told 9News.
Kyrgios spoke about his ‘brutal’ return to full fitness after a series of injuries
‘I started hitting soft balls that children under 10 learn with. I had to start from there and basically learn to use my right wrist again.’
Like Kyrgios, Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Belinda Bencic will also use her protected ranking to enter the Australian Open main draw.
British stars Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage have also been confirmed in the main draw roster.