Nick Kyrgios is in New York, even though the Australian is not playing at the 2024 US Open, because he isn't ready to compete at that level yet, especially after feeling soreness in his wrist.
Kyrgios has been away from the sport since the summer of last year. Even before he played that one match at the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart, he was away for more than half a year, as he didn't play since the end of the previous season.
In January, he suffered a knee injury, which kept him away from the courts. When he finally recovered, the Australian suffered a wrist injury. It was a freak injury because there wasn't a dedicated way of healing it, so his doctors had to try a few things to get it fixed.
He underwent treatment, which went well, and the wrist was starting to heal. Healing it is a long process, so it's been over a year since he played a competitive match. Things have progressed slowly, partly because Kyrgios also didn't want to rush it.
Seeing what happened with a few other players' wrist problems, Kyrgios wanted to take his time and return only when he felt 100%. It's slowly getting there, and he spent some time on the courts in New York, beating Casper Ruud as part of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
However, he didn't play another match because he felt his wrist a bit sore after beating Ruud, withdrawing from the competition, which again indicates that he's still not ready.
He clearly doesn't want to rush into competitive tennis only to suffer a setback that could keep him out for many more months. That's why he's not playing at the US Open and likely won't play in the coming weeks.
Still, he follows tennis and the US Open as part of his commentary job and even has a favorite. When talking to the Baseline, the Australian revealed that he's rooting for Novak Djokovic in New York mostly because it makes him look better comparatively.
"I hope Novak wins it because it makes me look better since I lost my final to Novak. The more he wins, the better I look in the future."
Kyrgios and Djokovic contested a Wimbledon final in 2022, which Djokovic won in four sets. Kyrgios hailed making that final and being competitive as a big achievement, and he's not wrong.
He's also not wrong in this assessment because the more trophies the Serbian legend wins, the less bad he looks. Making a Grand Slam final and losing to arguably the greatest tennis player of all time isn't a bad achievement to have on a resume.
He wishes he had bested him in that match, but ultimately, he won one set, which is still a great effort. There were players before him who made the final against him but didn't win a set.
Also predicting how the tournament might go, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist stated that the tournament may be wide open, given the injury struggles of both Djokovic, but also Carlos Alcaraz.
"I saw Carlos Alcaraz today, had a little slip in practice. So there’s so many things that need to happen to win a Grand Slam. I’ve never won a singles one, made a final, but the stars need to align so they need a lot of luck."
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