Australian tennis star pulls out of tournament due to a torn ligament in his wrist
\nLONDON
\nNick Kyrgios withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday with a wrist injury, stripping the tournament of one its headline acts 12 months after the firebrand Australian finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic.
\n\u201cI\u2019m really sad to say that I have to withdraw from Wimbledon this year,\u201d the 28-year-old wrote on Instagram, explaining that he had hurt his wrist as he prepared in vain to play in Mallorca last week.
\nKyrgios had been an injury doubt in the build-up to Wimbledon.
\nHowever, that was because he was struggling to recover from knee surgery which has restricted him to just one match in 2023.
\n\u201cI tried my hardest to be ready after my surgery and to be able to step on the Wimbledon courts again. During my comeback, I experienced some pain in my wrist during Mallorca,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cAs a precaution, I had it scanned and it came back showing a torn ligament in my wrist.
\n\u201cI tried everything to be able to play and I am disappointed to say that I just didn\u2019t have enough time to manage it before Wimbledon.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll be back, and as always, I appreciate the support from all my fans.\u201d
\nKyrgios had been due to face wild card David Goffin in the first round at the All England Club on Monday.
\nHis place in the draw will be taken by a lucky loser from qualifying.
\nEarlier Sunday, Kyrgios, whose lone match in 2023 came in Stuttgart last month, said that his battle to regain full fitness had been \u201cbrutal\u201d.
\nHowever, he added: \u201cI didn\u2019t miss the sport. I was almost dreading coming back a little bit, but it\u2019s my job.\u201d
\nHe also admitted there remained \u201cquestion marks\u201d over his ability to play best-of-five sets after such a lengthy absence.
\n\u201cI feel like to the outside world, people don\u2019t understand. Just because it\u2019s not contact, it\u2019s not that physical.
\n\u201cI dare someone to go out there and play four hours with Novak and see how you feel afterwards.\u201d
\nAt Wimbledon in 2022, the Australian dominated most of the headlines.
\nHis high-octane, flamboyant shot-making was accompanied by signature clashes with rivals and officialdom.
\nHe was fined $10,000 for spitting and $4,000 for shouting obscenities — one of which sent the British tabloids into meltdown as it was within earshot of eight-year-old Prince George.
\nKyrgios also fought out an explosive third round clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas with the Greek even describing him as \u201cevil\u201d and a \u201cbully\u201d.
\nIn the final against Djokovic, he demanded a woman be ejected from the crowd for consuming \u201c700 drinks, bro\u201d.
\n\u201cIn a way it was good to be home. Obviously heartbreaking as well,\u201d said Kyrgios as he reflected on his time out of the sport.
\n\u201cLast year I felt like everything kind of came together for me. Finals of Wimbledon. Barely lost a match. Had the third best season on tour.
\n\u201cObviously my body was just crying out for some sort of rest.\u201d
\nFor Kyrgios, being away from the tennis courts didn\u2019t mean an absence from the public view.
\nIn May, his car was stolen from his mother at gunpoint outside the family home in Canberra.
\nBefore that incident, Kyrgios pleaded guilty in February to assaulting a former girlfriend.
\nHe avoided a conviction for what the magistrate called a \u201csingle act of stupidity\u201d.
\nKyrgios has also been the headliner in the Netflix series \u201cBreak Point\u201d where he spoke candidly about his mental health.
\nHe admitted he had considered suicide and ended up in a psychiatric ward in 2019.
\n\u201cIt took me seven, eight years to be able to just open up about that,\u201d he explained on Sunday.
\n\u201cI feel great now. It\u2019s hard because I\u2019m putting so much expectation on myself. Compared to that time, I\u2019m feeling a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian tennis star pulls out of tournament due to a torn ligament in his wrist LONDON Nick Kyrgios withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday with a wrist injury, stripping the tournament of one its headline acts 12 months after the firebrand Australian finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic. \u201cI\u2019m really sad to say that I have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-341116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n