Miami Gardens, Florida (AP) – Nick Kyrgios won a match for the first time in almost 2 and a half years on Wednesday at the Miami open, beating Mackie McDonald 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 while wearing a thick envelope of adhesive tape on his Straight wrist repaired surgically He said was numb after taking five pain relievers.
“I’m not going to lie: I was close enough to cry on the field. I just think about the last two years, and it has been quite brutal, to be honest,” said Kyrgios, the finalist at Novak Djokovic in Wimbledon In 2022. “I was in a casting for 12 weeks. I couldn’t move my wrist. And the surgeons said that I would never play again. So I listened to a lot of outside noise – that I could play at this level and win. Playing is one thing, but winning matches and execution is another thing.”
The Australian, who will be 30 years next month, had not been released at the right end of an official competition since October 2022, when he beat Kamil Majchrzak during a tournament in Tokyo, then retired before what would have been a match against Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals.
Since then, Kyrgios needed operations for a torn ligament on the wrist and on his knee, putting the touch for almost all 2023 – when he contributed once in simple – and all the 2024 season.
Kyrgios, One of the complainants appointed in the collective appeal Placed Tuesday by players against groups that run tennis, started this year with a 0-3 file until Wednesday.
The lack of competition removed him from a career summit from n ° 13 to n ° 892 in the ATP ranking; He was able to enter Miami’s field thanks to a protected classification. He was semi-finalist in this field tournament in 2016 and 2017.
“I used to win a little, so this kind of normal sense, but I don’t think it was really sunk that I was in a place where I could not hit a soft tennis ball to beat a solid player now,” Kyrgios said 13 AS on Wednesday. “It’s quite surreal.”
McDonald, a Californian who eliminated Rafael Nadal At the Australian Open 2023, is ranked 101st and qualified to win a place in the draw of the Miami Open.
Next for Kyrgios is a match against Seed n ° 22 Karen KhachanovHalf a half-walk halfway.
They played three times before, including Five-Setters at Australian Open 2020, won by Kyrgios, and US Open 2022 won by Khachanov.
“We have almost grown up together through juniors. He is a crazy battle horse. If he always presents himself. Above the opposite of what I do,” Kyrgios said with a smile. “If I do the starting line, I will give him what I have. But I cannot say that it will be what will be between the two of us. ”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More tennis AP: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
