{"id":397457,"date":"2026-01-09T03:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397457\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:08:10","slug":"kyrgios-wont-play-singles-at-the-australian-open-saying-his-body-is-not-ready-for-5-set-tennis-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397457\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrgios won\u2019t play singles at the Australian Open, saying his body is not ready for 5-set tennis \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Nick Kyrgios says he\u2019s not fit enough to play singles at the Australian Open but will compete in doubles with his Australian mate Thanasi Kokkinakis at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios, who played in the so-called \u201c Battle of the Sexes \u201d exhibition against Aryna Sabalenka last month, had been tipped by local media to receive one of the three remaining wild-card entries from Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n

TA announced later on Friday that 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka and Australian players Jordan Thompson and Chris O\u2019Connell had received them. The 40-year-old Wawrinka has already announced this year will be his final season on tour.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Nick
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNick Kyrgios, left, and Aryna Sabalenka interact at the net during their Battle of the Sexes match, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (Christopher Pike\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n

Kyrgios said Friday on social media he would only play doubles in the tournament, which starts Jan. 18. Multiple wrist and knee surgeries have limited Kyrgios to just seven singles tour matches over the past three years, with his ranking sinking to 670.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old veteran\u2019s most recent singles match lasted just 66 minutes \u2014 a 6-3, 6-4 loss to American Aleksandar Kovacevic at the Brisbane International this week.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios, who reached the 2022 Wimbledon final, said his body wasn\u2019t yet ready for five-set tennis and he wanted the wild card to go to someone who could \u201cmake their moment count.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter some good conversations with TA I\u2019ve made the call to focus on doubles for this year\u2019s AO,\u201d he wrote in an Instagram post. \u201cI\u2019m fit and back on court, but five setters are a different beast, and I\u2019m not quite ready to go the distance yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tournament means everything to me, but I\u2019d rather give my spot to someone who\u2019s ready to make their moment count. It\u2019s all building blocks, and I\u2019ll be back next year and pumped to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.<\/p>\n

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___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Nick Kyrgios says he\u2019s not fit enough to play singles at the Australian Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-397457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397457","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=397457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}