Nick Kyrgios development delights tennis fans after lingering retirement speculation

Nick Kyrgios has promised fans he will be returning to the tennis court in the coming days as he gears up for a comeback to the sport. The Aussie sports star has endured a nightmare last 12 months, only managing a single match at ATP level in 2023 due to knee and wrist injuries.

Tennis fans and officials were hoping he would make his return at the Australian Open in January but he was not fit to play. He instead opted to start an OnlyFans page for behind-the-scenes content and took a gig commentating at the tournament, sparking fresh fears he may never return to the sport.

Kyrgios has spoken on multiple occasions about falling out of love with the game and not enjoying his tennis. And in early 2023 the Aussie tennis star said there was "no way" he'd still be playing professionally in five years. However, in a recent interview on the AO Show podcast, Kyrgios revealed the fire in his belly has returned and promised fans he will be back on the court in the near future.

"I'll be back on court soon and I'll give you a little bit more to cheer about, that's for sure," the 28-year-old said when asked if he had a message for his fans. "It's arguably been one of the hardest years of my life tennis-wise," the Australian conceded after his best year in 2022 was followed by an injury-hit, write-off of a campaign in 2023.

Nick Kyrgios says the 'fire in the belly' is back

Kyrgios, who made the final at Wimbledon in 2022 but lost to Novak Djokovic, previously admitted he probably would have walked away from tennis if he had won. But upon reflecting on whether he wants to return to tennis after his long injury layoff, the Aussie tennis star said he realised that he is keen to get back into it and still feels like he has a lot to prove to himself.

"Everything else has been amazing, I can't complain about anything else. But tennis-wise, I've had some really hard conversations with myself ... like why am I doing all this? Like I don't have to do it, but I'm doing it for some reason. So I know there's still fire in the belly, which is good.

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"I'm hitting for the first time next week, so as soon as I get back out on court, I guess it's just going to be starting up, getting that load back through my wrist and my body," he said. But look, I definitely will be coming back. It's just hard to put an exact date on it because the injury was quite severe."

Nick Kyrgios keen to put retirement noise behind him and enjoy tennis again

Kyrgios was far from out of the spotlight in his stint on the sidelines, teaming up with Eurosport to commentate on the end-of-season ATP Finals and then the Australian Open. But the Aussie says he is keen to get out from behind the mic and back to where he is more comfortable, on the tennis court.

"I'm getting to the point of my career where I know that I've had a lot of success and many athletes don't even have a quarter the success of that, so it's selfish for me to come back and demand to be making Wimbledon finals again. I'm going to take my time, come back and just enjoy being back out there."

with AAP