Nick Kyrgios played his first match since March, and only his sixth this year, completing about an hour on court in a men’s doubles loss at the ATP Tour’s DC Open.
Partnering French veteran Gael Monfils and ahead of NBA star Kevin Durant, Kyrgios faced third seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys.
Monfils was broken in the opening game, and while Kyrgios held his first serve, both players were then broken to lose the first set 6-2.
The second was much the same, Monfils breaking early and Kyrgios late as they went down again 6-2 to lose in 58 minutes.
The entertainment potential of the Kyrgios-Monfils duo drew a massive crowd to the Washington Grandstand court, but it never really materialized as the Australian appeared embarrassed and uncomfortable.
“The knee was done but the fans still made fun of us,” Kyrgios wrote on Instagram after the match.
The 30-year-old has had wrist problems, but his knee has been bothering him of late, and he has been seen limping and pushing on the injury.
Still, just being on court was something of an achievement for Kyrgios, who has been struggling with injuries since reaching the 2022 Wimbledon final.
That year ended with him withdrawing from one match in Tokyo due to a knee injury, and he has played only 10 matches (six singles, four doubles) for two tour victories since.
Kyrgios last played doubles at the Australian Open in January, dropping in the second set of his opening match against Thanasi Kokkinakis while trailing fellow Australians James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 3-2.
He then played three singles matches, dropping with a score of 7-6 (8/6), 3-0 in the first round at Indian Wells in March. The wrist operated on in September 2023 still posed a problem.
He reached the second round of the Miami Open later that month, beating McKenzie McDonald for his only singles victory since 2022.
In the second round, he lost to Karen Khachanov, and this outing in the American capital was his first match since injuries remained a problem.
Kyrgios currently has an ATP ranking of 640, but activated his protected ranking of 21 to make the official entry list for the US Open in New York, where he is also set to play in the reformatted mixed doubles alongside three-time major winner Naomi Osakafrom the end of August.
In another match at the DC Open, Chris O’Connell lost 6-3, 6-2 to American Ethan Quinn, ranked five places lower at world number 82, and later Vukic faced Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
On the WTA side in Washington, the first match of Maya Joint, 19, as she prepares for the US Open, ended in disappointment, beaten 6-3, 6-3 in 80 minutes by Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin are also competing in the ATP 500 event but received first-round byes.
PAA
