Kyrgios confirmed the news with a “mixture of emotions” in a media conference. Here are the details of Nick Kyrgios knee injury .
Nick Kyrgios pulls out of Australian Open with injury.
He announced his withdrawal on Day 1 of action at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, appearing at a news conference at Melbourne Park alongside his physical therapist, Will Maher.
Kyrgios, a 27-year-old from Australia, was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last year in singles and teamed with good friend Thanasi Kokkinakis for the men’s doubles championship at the 2022 Australian Open.
A devastated Nick Kyrgios has already set his sights on recovering from his untimely knee injury in time to better his sparkling 2022 season following his “brutal” 11th-hour withdrawal from the Australian Open on the eve of his home grand slam.
On Monday it was revealed an MRI uncovered a cyst caused by a tear in his left meniscus, which his physio, Will Maher, said is not career-threatening but would not allow him to play at his best and risked affecting the remainder of his 2023 season should he attempt to put it through the rigour of a grand slam campaign.
“I’m devastated, obviously,” Kyrgios said. “It’s my home tournament, I’ve had some great memories here – obviously last year winning the title in doubles and playing the best tennis of my life probably. Then going into this event as one of the favourites, it’s brutal.
“It always goes back to the last grand slam I played, the US Open … I was extremely hard on myself after that loss in the quarter-finals, thinking that I could win it from there on.
I just had the Aus Open on the back of my mind from that day forth as soon as I got off the court against [Karen] Khachanov. And I always wanted to just do everything right and train right and tick every box, and just be ready for the Aus Open.”