“I’m hitting for the first time next week” – Kyrgios gives encouraging update about return

The Australian has played only one match since the end of the 2022 season due to knee and wrist injuries

Nick Kyrgios in Stuttgart 2023 Image Credit: Imago / Panoramic

April 4, 2024

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios, sidelined for most of the past 15 months due to injury, has said that he plans to resume hitting next week and is still driven to return to the sport. However, the former Wimbledon runner-up said he was not able to put a timetable around his return.

Kyrgios has played only one match since the end of the 2022 season due to knee and wrist injuries. But in a recent interview with The AO Show podcast, the former world No 13 provided a promising update for his fans.

“I’m hitting for the first time next week, so as soon as I get back out on court, I guess it’s just going to be starting up, getting that load back through my wrist and my body,” the Australian said. “But look, I definitely will be coming back. It’s just hard to put an exact date on it because the injury was quite severe.”

It’s arguably been one of the hardest years of my life tennis wise.
Kyrgios on his time on the sidelines

Kyrgios described his time away from the game as the hardest year of his life but said he was determined to make a comeback.

“It’s arguably been one of the hardest years of my life tennis wise,” Kyrgios acknowledged. “Everything else has been amazing, I can’t complain about anything else. But tennis wise, I’ve had some really hard conversations with myself. Like why am I doing all this? Like I don’t have to do it, but I’m doing it for some reason. So I know there’s still fire in the belly, which is good.”

The Australian is also keeping his expectations realistic when he does make his return, knowing that it won’t be easy to repeat the success he had in 2022 immediately.

“I’m getting to the point of my career where I know that I’ve had a lot of success and many athletes don’t even have a quarter the success of that, so it’s selfish for me to come back and demand to be making Wimbledon finals again,” he said. “I’m going to take my time, come back and just enjoy being back out there.”