Lleyton Hewitt's sad update on Alex de Minaur as Australian Open boss makes Nick Kyrgios call

Alex de Minaur's race against time to be fit for Australia's quest to end a 21-year Davis Cup drought appears likely to fall short with Lleyton Hewitt revealing the 25-year-old is almost at the point where he needs to turn his attention to the 2025 season. De Minaur, who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in 2024, had his incredible year disrupted by a hip injury.

Australia played the Davis Cup group stage without him, and he has been left out of November's tie against the United States for now, although there has been hope he could be a late inclusion. And on Thursday Hewitt described de Minaur's fitness as a "work in progress", but believes even if he does return this year it may be to try and make the ATP Finals instead of play in the Davis Cup.

"I'm speaking to him every second day, and it's certainly been a very frustrating time for him," Hewitt said at the Australian Open launch in Melbourne. "He's had some small niggles in the past that I guess he could better understand what he needed to do to get over it, to get back to 100 per cent as quickly as possible.

"This one has been a different case, and mentally it's been more frustrating. As everyone saw, the effort that he put in in New York, for him on one leg, basically, to go out and make a quarter-final was pretty exceptional, and he's still given himself a chance of being in the Turin (ATP) Finals by doing that as well. So he's got to weigh up the priorities now as well."

De Minaur's hopes of reaching the ATP Finals are precariously placed, given only the world's top eight feature in the tournament. De Minaur has dropped to World No.9, with Novak Djokovic just ahead of him and he would need to go well in a tournament or two to qualify. "Obviously he's got to get back out there and play to give himself a chance to still make it," Davis Cup captain Hewitt said.

Lleyton Hewitt warns Alex de Minaur to not rush back

But there will come be a point where the 25-year-old has to pull the pin and that is what Hewitt believes will happen in the next couple of weeks. "It depends. The worst thing is if it can be a bigger setback and hurt his Australian Open chances and the preparation going into that," Hewitt said.

"So that's where you've got to weigh up what's more important at the moment, but I think the first thing is we've got to get him 100 per cent fit. He's got too good a career ahead of him for so many years to come, so he's got to look at the future and what that holds."

Nick Kyrgios expected to feature at 2025 Australian Open

But in some positive news for Aussie tennis fans, after multiple false starts, Nick Kyrgios is expected to line up in his home grand slam in January. Kyrgios, who has had to navigate wrist and knee injuries over the past two years, hasn't played at Melbourne Park since 2022 but tournament organisers expect him to feature.

The 29-year-old has had just one tour singles match since October 2022 but has returned to training in recent months. And Tennis Australia's Craig Tilley says he has been in contact with the tennis star and says he is confident he will take the court in January. "We would love to have Nick back playing in 2025, we believe he will be," Open chief Tiley said on Thursday.

"He's out there practising, playing, been in touch with his team over the last couple days, and he's fully expecting to play, and we expect to see Nick on the court playing. The confidence that we get about Nick playing is that in his preparation, we know he's doing more than he's done before.

We know that he wants to do it. We know that he's mentally preparing to get ready to play in January... So we fully expect to see him."

Lleyton Hewitt believes Nick Kyrgios will struggle on return

But Aussie tennis great Hewitt has issued a warning to Kyrgios to not expect to hit the ground running on his return from injury, in what he labelled the Aussie star's biggest challenge to date. "He's certainly been on the practice court playing more than I've seen in the last year and a half," Hewitt said.

"He's still got to get over the niggles obviously, and even when you start to up your practice and being able to push through those setbacks as well. He's certainly doing a lot more stuff, it's just whether the body can hold up."

RELATED:

• Sad reveal about Lleyton and Bec Hewitt after bittersweet $6 million move

• Lleyton Hewitt blasts 'ridiculous' move after Aussies dudded at Davis Cup

"It's tough (to come back) and probably the biggest challenge he's ever faced. To have a setback, especially of that amount of time now as well, and the game keeps improving, the guys keep taking it to new levels as well.

"For him to come in and obviously try and play (at the Australian Open), there's a number of players in the draw which, if he goes out there and plays his best tennis, he'll be able to take care of in straight sets, but there's going to be a lot of guys that are going to be able to push him. And how he responds to that, obviously, by not doing it for the last couple of years - that's not only (tough) physically, it's a mental challenge as well."

with AAP