{"id":346589,"date":"2025-12-15T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/346589\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:08:28","slug":"nick-kyrgios-given-reality-check-by-aus-open-boss-as-comeback-uncertain-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/346589\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios given reality check by Aus Open boss as comeback uncertain | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Nick Kyrgios\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/nick-kyrgios\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Kyrgios<\/a> is ramping up his comeback after spending most of the last three years sidelined by knee and wrist injuries. The former world No. 13 made a short-lived comeback in January, playing five matches across four tournaments before taking another forced hiatus. Kyrgios is now back in action at some exhibition events &#8211; and will also face world No. 1 <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Aryna Sabalenka\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/aryna-sabalenka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> in a <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2129454\/Aryna-Sabalenka-Nick-Kyrgios-Battle-of-the-Sexes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Battle of the Sexes later this month.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2142958\/Nick-Kyrgios-Carlos-Alcaraz-One-Point-Slam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">has also signed up for the One Point Slam<\/a>, an unusual exhibition event taking place ahead of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/australian-open\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australian Open<\/a>, where amateurs face professionals in matches consisting of just one point. But Kyrgios\u2019 participation in the Australian Open itself seems to be in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>The 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/wimbledon\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wimbledon<\/a> finalist is currently ranked outside the world\u2019s top 600 due to his injury struggles. Kyrgios\u2019 protected ranking of No. 21, which allowed him to enter tournaments after his long layoff, has since expired after he used it to compete at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p>It means the Aussie will need a wildcard if he wants to play his home Grand Slam tournament, and there\u2019s no guarantee that Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley will give him one.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing Kyrgios\u2019 potential appearance at Melbourne Park, Tiley told The Tennis podcast: \u201cI don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll have to wait and see. But he\u2019s playing, which is good, he\u2019s been playing events leading in, and I know he wants to play in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo if he wants to play in the summer, it means he wants to play the Australian Open, but there\u2019s still a lot of water that needs to go under the bridge. I think he\u2019s beyond the period of a protected ranking, so he\u2019s going to need a wild card to play as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kyrgios has already been out on the court for two exhibition matches in America against Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton. The seven-time title winner will also compete in the World Tennis League exhibition event in India before heading to Dubai for the Battle of the Sexes with Sabalenka.<\/p>\n<p>Their upcoming match has received backlash from some who have questioned whether it will undermine women\u2019s tennis, but Kyrgios <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2145442\/Nick-Kyrgios-Billie-Jean-King-Aryna-Sabalenka-Battle-Sexes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently hit back at critics in a social media post<\/a>. He wrote: \u201cBtw all the negative comments towards the Battle of the Sexes are doing nothing but giving it more attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, Aryna will go down as one of the greatest players to play this game. I will have entertained crowds around the world. We are two humans that are good friends and want to put on a show and get more eyes on tennis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot all this other BS &#8211; does this not look like TENNIS is going in the right DIRECTION? Sit back and enjoy the show &#8211; we both love the challenge and are going into this with no real experience. No one cares what you have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios is ramping up his comeback after spending most of the last three years sidelined by knee&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[7641,49,48,44154,10460,82,593,621],"class_list":{"0":"post-346589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-craig-tiley","12":"tag-nick-kyrgios","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-tennis-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}