Tennis coach
Patrick Mouratoglou has heaped praise on Australia’s Nick
Kyrgios and stated that he looked ‘incredible’ upon his return to the sport.
The 29-year-old recently returned to the court during an event in New York — the
Ultimate Tennis Showdown — after spending nearly two years on the sidelines because
of fitness concerns. It was because of this reason he has now missed the last
eight Grand Slam. His last appearance in a major event was in the US Open back
in 2022.
Tennis coach Mouratoglou, who watched Kyrgios play during the contest,
was recently quoted in a report where he praised the performance of the former
world number 10. The 54-year-old was of the opinion that the Canberra-born star
looked in great shape during the contest and that he had an ‘impressive’
outing.
“He looked incredible. Everyone was shocked by the quality of his
tennis,” he said while talking to Tennis 365. “For someone who didn’t compete
for so long to come out and play that was really, really impressive. Everyone
was so excited to see him play, it was so spectacular. He had only one serve in
UTS and still I would say he was playing top-20 level tennis, for sure. Tennis-wise,
he can come back and at the moment his wrist seems to be okay, but he needs to
get used to playing back-to-back matches. Tennis-wise, there is no problem with
him. He can play at the highest level, but it’s all about the injury.”
Kyrgios
got injured at a time when he was arguably going through the best phase of his
career when he played the final of his first and till now the only final of the
Grand Slam which was at Wimbledon in 2022. In that contest, he ended up on the
losing side to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic with a score of 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(7–3).