Painful Return: Kyrgios ‘cooked’ knee dooms DC Open doubles dream in showman Monfils duo

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios returned to the court after a lengthy injury layoff at the DC Open. The 30-year-old was playing his first match after opting to stay out of action from the last two Grand Slams because of a knee injury.

His return, however, did not go down well as he and his partner in the doubles category, France’s Gael Monfils, suffered a first-round defeat to the pair of Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2. Talking after the match, Kyrgios spoke to the media briefly and stated that his desire was to play in the singles category, but decided against it after suffering a knee injury, which ruled him out of action from the French Open and Wimbledon as well. "I wanted to play singles, but six weeks ago I had a bit of a niggle with my knee," Kyrgios said. "So it's just going to take a bit more time."

Despite the result, Kyrgios will be happy to return to the court and do something he loves doing. However, even though he managed to stay fit in the contest, doubts about Kyrgios’ future as a singles player remain. After losing in the first round of the Australian Open earlier this year, Kyrgios hinted that he is considering retirement from the singles category. They admitted that it was no fun to play with pain.

"Realistically I can't really see myself probably playing singles again here," Kyrgios said while talking to the media after losing to Jacob Fearnley of Britain in straight sets in the first round of the first Grand Slam of the year. "It was special. Like taking that in, it was pretty good. I knew that I have doubles, so I kind of was taking everything in tonight in those moments. It was nuts. I didn't want to just throw in the towel and walk off or retire. I was hurting physically. I respect my opponent. The fans waited hours to come see me play. Realistically I can't see myself playing a singles match here again."

During the same press conference, Kyrgios shared his frustration about suffering a serious wrist injury back in 2022 which forced him to stay on the sidelines for nearly two years. He returned to the court late in 2024 but has not been able to maintain fitness to compete at the highest level consistently.

"I was knocking on the door from playing some of the biggest events, winning some of the biggest events,” he said back in January. “To see how hard I worked in the past year, I didn't think I was going to be back here anyway playing. I didn't get a wild card. I'm here because I feel like I deserve to be here. It's hard. When you're competing for the biggest tournaments in the world and you're struggling to win sets physically, it's pretty tough. But I've still got a long year ahead. I'm trusting the process that I can still be able to do some cool things this year at some stage. All my focus now is just not taking anything for granted.”

As things stand, Kyrgios is set to feature at the US Open for the first time in three years. His last appearance was in 2022, where he was knocked out after losing in the quarterfinals to Russia’s Karen Khachanov in a five-set thriller with a score of 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4. Interestingly, Kyrgios has not only expressed his desire to feature in the singles category, but he is also set to participate in the mixed doubles event with the former world number one, Japan’s Naomi Osaka.