Australian Open 2023 – The blow: Nick Kyrgios forfeits

This is the big news of this first day of the Australian Open. The tournament started only a few hours ago, but it’s already over for Nick Kyrgios. The Australian number one, more expected than ever in Melbourne, has announced his withdrawal due to a knee injury. A blow for the Wimbledon finalist, but also for the tournament itself, which lost one of its outsiders and one of its main leaders. According to his physiotherapist, he has a torn lateral meniscus and a cyst in his knee.

Nick Kyrgios was however on the court Friday evening for a show-exhibition with Novak Djokovic on the Rod Laver Arena. He used that practice part”like a test“, but the result was hardly conclusive.”It’s bad timing, but that’s life, injuries are part of sport, he confided, fatalistic, during a press conference. I have no doubt that I will be back to my best but for now I am devastated because I am playing arguably the best tennis of my career. So it’s very hard.”

He chose caution

At the very beginning of January, his last minute package for the United Cup, the new mixed team competition co-organized by the ATP and the WTA, had already challenged. But he still had two weeks to perk up before the Australian Open. It was not the case. Kyrgios is going to have an arthroscopy in the next few days. By aligning himself with Melbourne, he would have taken the risk of aggravating his injury and leaving on an unavailability of several months. With his clan, he therefore chose caution.

If he had not reached the quarter-finals since 2015, the Australian could aim for great things this year in view of his performances in the last Grand Slam tournaments, a final at Wimbledon then a quarter at the US Open . He who says he only lives for major tournaments, especially his own and Wimbledon, immediately sees one of his major goals for the season falling through. Nick Kyrgios was scheduled to face Russian Roman Safiullin in the first round on Tuesday. His package is the delight of the American Denis Kudla, who joins the big picture as a lucky loser.