A devastated Nick Kyrgios said that he did not know what he could do with the other to put his tennis career on the right track after the pain in his right wrist rebuilt surgical forced him to get out of the Indian wells.
Kyrgios had a section of section in the first set but lost the break in equality and followed 3-0 in the second when he called, sending the Dutch loser Botic Van de Zandschulp in a second round meeting with Novak Djokovic.
It was the latest setback for Kyrgios, who has not won a ATP match since 2022. He underwent in -depth wrist surgery in September 2023 to combat debilitating pain that affected it not only on the field, but also to make simple tasks like changing a door handful.
“No one in sport had a reconstruction of the wrist and tried to play after that,” said Kyrgios, who was sidelined for 18 months. “There were players who have undergone wrist surgeries and far from being as bad as I had.
“It would be good if someone had this injury before if I could go and ask them, ok, these are reverses you had.
“It is an experience at this stage. I was told that I could probably never play tennis again. I think I’m like there, I feel like I can compete.
“This guy (van de Zandschulp) beat (Carlos) Alcaraz to open us in two sets, and I have points against him in the first set. I’m here, but if I am unable to finish the games, it doesn’t really matter at this stage.”
Kyrgios said he knew it would be touch and that the wrist pain had forced him to stop training earlier this week.
– Net pain –
“After the Australian Open, all I did was rehabilitation, the train, then try to prepare for this tournament,” said Kyrgios.
“I was two days before the tournament here and I had an excellent training session, and literally the second point in my training session, I hit a forehand, I felt acute pain and I had to stop playing.
“I guess I don’t know, we go back to the team drawing board, and we are just trying to understand and navigate a way to spend these games.
“I would have loved being able to finish this match even if I lose just as a construction element, to say, ok, I went there and that I laughed with a very good player, and I had chances and break points and stop points.
“It is therefore like these constituent elements, but now if I do not finish the games, it becomes a concern.”
Kyrgios said he had not abandoned the idea of playing the Miami Open, which begins on March 19.
“Obviously, Miami’s delay is not ideal, but, you know, I had to play this, so I will see how my wrist reacts,” he said.
And he is not ready to abandon the game.
“That’s all I have done since I was seven years old is playing tennis,” said Kyrgios. “I want to go there and I want to compete.”
BB / RCW
