A handful of practice hits with 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic was the turning point for Nick Kyrgios in his bid to return from wrist surgery.
Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21 November 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Plenty of times Nick Kyrgios has reached the crossroads any top athlete forced to stare down serious injury in their prime has faced: would the rehabilitation even be worth it.
Following almost two years on the sidelines, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist is about to find out just how he and his refurbished wrist stack up at the Brisbane International and Australian Open in January.
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Wrist surgery tended to be one of the more complicated operations a tennis player had to overcome for the chance to compete at a high level again, but a return to southwest London in June this year – to the site of his deepest run at a Grand Slam – afforded Kyrgios a few shots at putting his body to the test between commentary duties.
If not for a handful of practice sessions on the grass with his vanquisher from that 2022 final, his journey back to competition would have been far less certain.
“I was hitting with Novak (Djokovic) at Wimbledon, and he said to me ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve had surgery’. That for me was the key kind of motivation to say well maybe I’m making some inroads and making some progress into getting back because I didn’t really know,” Kyrgios said.
“If he didn’t say that I don’t know if I’d have been as motivated and kept pushing on the court but that was definitely a big part of the journey when he said that to me.”
Why @NickKyrgios doesn’t like commentating Djokovic’s matches 😂
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The initial nine months post-surgery were among the most difficult and Kyrgios credits his team for a healthy dose of motivation when his own inevitably ebbed.
Once fit enough again to hold a racquet, his return to court was painfully slow and by no means straightforward – from hitting the soft, fluffy under-10s tennis balls, he built it up every couple of months.
The sport has moved on quickly in his absence. This year’s Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz is the only one of the current top 10 Kyrgios has not faced, but the Spaniard has notably caught the Australian’s attention as one of his favourites to…
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