Nick Kyrgios makes triumphant return to tennis after lengthy break

Friday, 23 August 2024 at 15:26

Australia’s tennis star, Nick Kyrgios, was surprised to see his own performance on his return to professional tennis after a lengthy break. The 29-year-old spent nearly two years on the sidelines because of fitness concerns and missed numerous events because of that.

Kyrgios finally returned to the court in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in New York where his opening round fixture was a tough one against Norway’s Casper Ruud. However, he ended up defeating the current world number eight in the contest with a score of 17-8, 21-9, 15-11. That win helped him book his spot in the semifinal of the mega-event.

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While talking after the match, Kyrgios was clearly ecstatic with how the outing went against a tough opponent. He also went on to express optimism about going all the way. “What a way to come back,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting to play this well at all. Coming out here and still having that level, it’s amazing. Let’s see if we can string a couple of matches together.”

The former world number 10 also went on to highlight how tough the journey has been for him in the last few years. “I’m surprised, but I’m not that surprised,” he said. “I’ve been putting in some serious work, every single day back home,” Kyrgios said about the level he produced in the match. I didn’t know if I was going to play tennis again with the state of my wrist. It was literally conversations of never playing again. It was awesome.”

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Kyrgios was going through the best phase of his career when he got injured during the US Open 2022. Just months before that, the Canberra-born star played in his maiden and till now the only Grand Slam final which was at Wimbledon. He ended up losing that contest to Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic with a score of 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(7–3).