"Thought I was the best player in the world": Nick Kyrgios makes honest admission that best days are gone

A packed house in Brisbane but for Nick Kyrgios, it was the match that in reality showcased that perhaps his comeback bid is very much not one that will last as he admitted that his best days at the top of the sport are very much behind him.

Kyrgios has tumbled to World No.670 in the world rankings and although he might get an Australian Open wildcard rightfully or wrongfully depending on what side of the fence you sit, he is more of an attraction nowadays than his previous highest of highs that he mentioned in his press conference.

Reaching the Wimbledon final and even at one point looking like he was going to win it was his magnum opus and since then he has stopped and stalled with injuries and surgeries aplenty, he has backed his bid to comeback every time but there are often signs that not everything is rosy in the garden.

As he lost 6-4, 6-4 to Aleksandar Kovacevic, the writing perhaps was on the wall last week when he played the so-called Battle of the Sexes and he won it against Aryna Sabalenka but looked a shadow of his former self and was sweating profusely with many wondering how he was going to get the level of fitness to play a tour match.

He has played other matches including The Garden Cup and also the World Tennis League but the latter he was used merely in doubles. He made the first admission after seeing off Kovacevic that he perhaps doesn't have the belief anymore and that the best days of his career are behind him.

A 2022 Wimbledon finalist, he used that as the benchmark calling himself in his view the best player in the world that year. A far cry from now. "There was a point in my life in 2022 or when I was, you know, winning like multiple titles in a year, I geniunely thought I was the best player in the world," Kyrgios, said as per AFP.

"I genuinely thought I was unbeatable. I'd go out on court and I thought no one can genuinely beat me. You actually have that confidence and delusion that you are that person.

"I just don't think that after you have these surgeries, I guess they kind of pull you down and it's like you don't have that belief anymore. It's sad, in a way, but that's just the reality."

"I guess the people out there, they think that you just go under the knife and come back and throw him back out there and he's the same player. That's just not how it is. It's not reality."

He said that while there is no shame losing, it wrankles him given that he once won the event to be going out there and losing to a World No.58 when he knows that back in his heyday there was a real sense of desire that he could beat anyone.

Kyrgios has long flirted with retirement like Tyson Fury does in boxing and then continues on but whether or not he decides to this time is a matter that will only really be developed post Australian Open. Whether he goes to Miami/Indian Wells and also plays his favoured grass in the summer will be the telltale sign as to whether Kyrgios is plainly down on himself or whether there is a chance of a comeback.

"It's hard to go out there -- there was a time when I won this tournament, and now even just going out there, there is no shame in losing," he said following the loss to 58th-ranked Kovacevic.

"Even me going out there and taking another loss on the chin, to someone that, to most tennis fans and people, is someone I shouldn't lose to, but I'm not afraid to lose."