{"id":2587,"date":"2023-01-16T07:21:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T07:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diamondtvzambia.com\/staging\/7839\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2023-01-16T07:21:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T07:21:49","slug":"australian-open-nick-kyrgios-withdraws-from-home-grand-slam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diamondtvzambia.com\/staging\/7839\/australian-open-nick-kyrgios-withdraws-from-home-grand-slam\/","title":{"rendered":"AUSTRALIAN OPEN: NICK KYRGIOS WITHDRAWS FROM HOME GRAND SLAM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Home favourite Nick Kyrgios pulled out of the Australian Open with a knee injury the day before he was scheduled to play his opening match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wimbledon runner-up, 27, said he was “devastated” he could not play in Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Kyrgios, seeded 19th, was set to play Russia’s Roman Safiullin on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s obviously been pretty brutal before [one] of the most important tournaments of my career,” Kyrgios said. “It hasn’t been easy at all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considered among the favourites to win the title, Kyrgios “didn’t pull up great” from an exhibition with Novak Djokovic on Friday, according to his physio Will Maher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maher said they had used the charity event as “a gauge” to see if the player could compete at the highest level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But afterwards he advised the Australian he would potentially not be able to play a succession of five-set matches over the fortnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He still tried to give himself every chance in the following days to have subsequent training,” Maher added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But it was clear that with each passing session that he was getting sorer and sorer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyrgios, who will be unable to defend the men’s doubles title here, will need an operation because of a cyst growing in his meniscus but expects to be fully recovered to play At Indian Wells in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m devastated obviously. It’s like my home tournament. I’ve had some great memories here,” Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Obviously last year winning the title in doubles and playing the best tennis of my life probably. Then going into this event as one of the favourites, it’s brutal.” [BBC Sport]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home favourite Nick Kyrgios pulled out of the Australian Open with a knee injury the day before he was scheduled to play his opening match. The Wimbledon runner-up, 27, said he was “devastated” he could not play in Melbourne. Kyrgios, seeded 19th, was set to play Russia’s Roman Safiullin on Tuesday. “It’s obviously been pretty …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t