By Roger Vaughan and Ian Chadband
Nick Kyrgios will be gone from tennis for good within five years as he contemplates the end of his tumultuous professional career.
The 28-year-old injured Australian says he feels like he has the body of a 57-year-old because of his partying.
Nick Kyrgios has not featured much this year due to injury.Credit: Getty Images
Kyrgios has discussed what comes next this week on a video posted by the Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
“No f---ing chance. No way. Bro, there’s no chance I’m playing until 33,” he said.
“Kyrgios playing until 33 is insane! I’m not playing until 33.
“Nah, I promise you, when I’m gone, you’ll never see me again.”
Kyrgios, who made the Wimbledon final last year, has played only one tournament in 2023 because of injury.
“The schedule is out of control. I’m getting old. I’m getting old,” he laughed. “Twenty-eight. Yeah. But all the drinking and partying, I’m like 57.”
On Wednesday, organisers said Kyrgios had pulled out of the US Open tune-up tournament in Washington, again because of injury.
Earlier this month fellow Australian Mark Philippoussis warned Kyrgios’ career could be in jeopardy if he does not throw everything into rehab on his injured knee.
Twenty years since reaching the Wimbledon final, Philippoussis painted a grim scenario for his fellow Australian who followed him as a finalist in 2022 but pulled out on tournament eve this year with a wrist injury following season-long knee trouble.
Philippoussis, who had six surgeries on his knee, knows how difficult it will be for Kyrgios, at 28, to rebound from his January surgery and was alarmed after watching him play his only match since, a tame loss in Stuttgart a month ago.
“He’s not even close to being fit, and I knew straight away he was in trouble,” said Philippoussis at Wimbledon.
Asked if he feared for Kyrgios, who’s famously never been one for hard off-court training, Philippoussis added: “He’s got to fear for himself. I’ve become a knee expert after six knee surgeries and it’s something you can’t mess around with. You’re talking about your movement.
Asked if he might be able to help Kyrgios, Philippoussis wasn’t sure any help would be wanted anyway.
“Everyone can want to help someone as much as possible, but if that person is not willing to help themselves, then it’s all pointless,” he shrugged.
“We all know where Nick stands as far as he’s very happy to be very free with the way he plays and not have a coach. And I doubt very much anything is going to change with the fitness side.
“If he’s happy with that, then no problem. The most important thing is for him to be happy in his life, because sport stops at some stage, and it’s about what’s really important – and that’s his life.”
Meanwhile, Alex de Minaur has kickstarted his Atlanta Open title defence with a straight-sets victory over fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, in his first match since his early Wimbledon exit.
Alex de Minaur overcame compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis in Atlanta.Credit: Getty Images
Australia’s Davis Cup hero, who had a first-round bye as the second seed this week behind American Taylor Fritz, has won two of his seven ATP titles in Atlanta, also triumphing there in his breakthrough 2019 season.
The world No.17 rallied from a 3-0 second-set deficit to beat 86th-ranked Kokkinakis 6-3, 6-4 in their second-round clash, two days after the latter survived a final-set tiebreaker to edge past Gael Monfils.
“It’s never easy playing against a mate, and someone like Thanasi, who’s an extreme talent and very dangerous player,” de Minaur said.
“I knew I had to be ready to go from the get-go, and I’m very happy to manage to get the win, and especially in two sets. I think [we would both] come out of this match and say we didn’t play our best tennis – and probably a lot had to do with us playing each other and knowing each other well.”
He could meet another countryman if he reaches the semi-finals, with Aleks Vukic also advancing to the last eight in Atlanta with a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) defeat of Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
AAP, and Marc McGowan
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