Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has pulled out of the Australian Open just one day before his scheduled opener.
The 27-year-old announced his withdrawal from the tournament on Monday (January 16) afternoon.
During the press conference, he noted that he had been experiencing discomfort in his knee and an MRI showed a small tear in his lateral meniscus as well as a cyst.
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His injury will require arthroscopic surgery.
The Wimbledon finalist said he had been feeling uneasy about his knee for the past two weeks and his exhibition match with Novak Djokovic only exacerbated the injury.
He said: “I'm devastated. It's like my home tournament. I've had some great memories here.
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“Playing the best tennis of my life probably. Then going into this event as one of the favourites, it's brutal.
“All I can do now is just look forward."
The Australian noted that he had ‘barely had a good night's sleep’ as his knee had been causing him serious discomfort.
Thankfully, Kyrgios doesn’t believe the injury will be career-threatening and says he has no doubts that he’ll be back at ‘full strength’ after his recovery.
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The tennis star was an outside favourite to win the tournament following a fantastic 2022 that saw him reach his first Grand Slam final.
His stock had certainly risen in the tennis world, and many fans were excited to see what he could produce on home soil.
He was set to take on Roman Safiullin on Tuesday (January 17) night at John Cain Arena.
Kyrgios was also forced to withdraw from the United Cup last month due to an injury to his ankle, but it was believed he had recovered enough to compete in the Aus Open.
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And after Friday night’s game against Djokovic it was expected he would kick off his campaign as scheduled.
However, Kyrgios’ physio Will Maher explained that the exhibition match had been used to test out the knee issue.
It was decided that the knee was not comfortable or fit enough to be maintained throughout the seven straight matches it would be required to win the competition.
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Maher said: “We have made the sensible decision to withdraw him.
“At this stage he wants to be mentally comfortable that he can go seven matches and go the distance. Getting on the court simply wasn't enough for him.
"The situation now we want to prevent him from having further injury or making that injury worse. So now he'll go back to Canberra at the end of the week."
Topics: Australia, Australian Open, Tennis, Nick Kyrgios