Nick Kyrgios returned to the tennis courts at the 2024 World Tennis League (WTL), and even though his comeback was initially victorious, he lost the most crucial match.
Kyrgios signed up for the off-season exhibition event in Abu Dhabi to play some matches before officially starting his season Down Under. In Australia, he already has a few events planned, including a doubles event with Novak Djokovic.
At the 2024 World Tennis League, Kyrgios is part of The Kites team. Before the event started, he was one of the players who changed teams, and even one of his teammates was replaced.
The final line-up representing The Kites consists of Kyrgios, Casper Ruud, Simona Halep, and Jasmine Paolini. However, on the first day of the competition, the Australian player didn't make it to the tennis court.
With Ruud representing the team in both men's singles and mixed doubles, Kyrgios supported his team only from the bench as they beat The Eagles 25-20.
In their second tie, The Kites took on The Falcons, who won their first tie thanks to a heroic performance from Andrey Rublev. This time, the Russian player delivered the winning point for his team as well.
But the tie started with a women's doubles match between Caroline Garcia, who teamed up with Elena Rybakina, and Team Kites' duo of Simona Halep and Jasmine Paolini.
Paolini was the highest-ranked doubles player on the court, but it didn't matter as Garcia's and Rybakina's serving qualities proved to be too solid for the Italian and Halep, as The Falcons duo won 7-5 in a tie-break.
In the following women's singles match, Rybakina bested Halep 6-4, with The Falcons leading already 13-10 ahead of the mixed doubles match, for which Kyrgios with Paolini were nominated to take on Garcia and Shapovalov.
The long-awaited comeback of the Australian player was victorious, as he and Paolini outplayed their opponents 7-5 to reduce the deficit to 17-18.
That meant that if Kyrgios wanted to turn the tie around for his team, he had to beat Rublev in the last match of the tie. Rublev already had one heroic performance under his belt, and he was determined to add another one.
The Russian player broke his opponent's serve already in the third game of the match, and from there, both players cruised on their service games relatively easily.
That was until Rublev served for the match at 5-4. Kyrgios found his way to two break points, but those were not enough to turn the match around, as his last backhand return sailed wide, meaning he lost the match 4-6, and The Falcons won the tie 24-21.
While The Falcons will now almost certainly play in the final of the competition, Kyrgios' Kites will need to beat The Hawks in the last tie of the group stage.
Following his matches at the event, Kyrgios was clearly happy, sharing a few pictures on his Instagram profile, saying that he didn't imagine he would be able to return to the tennis courts after his wrist surgery.
"Never thought I’d play again after my wrist surgery. Blessed."