Nick Kyrgios will be present in Melbourne for the 2024 Australian Open, but much like the 2023 ATP Finals, it's to be an analyst and not a player.
Nick Kyrgios got his first tennis media experience recently during the ATP Finals. He was in Los Angeles as part of the Tennis Channel's coverage team for the event, providing commentary on the matches. It went pretty fine as Kyrgios handled being on and off camera pretty well despite some hiccups.
He'll do the same for the upcoming Australian Open, which is kind of unfortunate. Kyrgios always emphasized how much he loves playing at home, and part of that is simply that he doesn't get to do that often.
He's a player who likes spending time at home with his family, but as Ashleigh Barty can attest, the tennis calendar is brutal for Australians.
They get one month back home at the start of the season, and then it's being away for basically the entire year. Kyrgios has been away from tennis for many months, as his last match happened last year at the Stuttgart Open.
The date was June 13th, 2023, and it was a loss to Yibing Wu 5-7, 3-6. Missing yet another Australian Open for Kyrgios is devastating, but the writing was on the wall. Weeks ago, while working for the Tennis Channel, Kyrgios hinted at possibly missing the event.
Since then, comments from people in the 'know' have only reaffirmed that, and the official withdrawal came. His last match at the event was against Daniil Medvedev on January 20th, 2022.
The next event is coming up on January 12th, 2025, so Kyrgios will go almost three full years without playing at the event, and that's only if he's healthy enough to play in 2025. A full 1088 days.
That's devastating for an Aussie player, but at least he'll be in Melbourne as part of the Eurosport commentary team. The Network announced it on social media, so look out for that.
Nick Kyrgios, John McEnroe, Tim Henman, Mats Wilander, Alize Lim, Barbara Schett and many more. The tournament starts untraditionally on Sunday, January 14th, 2024.
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