“It all really depends on how much pain I want to deal with,” Nick Kyrgios said ahead of his return in January, following a two-year hiatus. It came as a result of a wrist injury that forced him out of action. Unfortunately, though, the pain resurfaced during his Australian Open campaign. After his singles journey ended with a first-round loss to Jacob Fernley, the doubles category saw him withdrawing, alongside Thomas Kokkinakis, in the first-round battle against compatriots Aleksandar Vukic and James Duckworth. Kyrgios made another comeback, after his month-long recovery, this week at the Indian Wells. But guess what? Pain has got him again.

On Thursday, Kyrgios appeared in R128 at the Indian Wells, in his sixth appearance in the tournament, against Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands and lost the first set in the tie-break 7-6(3). The Aussie seemed to capitulate from there as he pulled out when he was trailing 0-3 in the second set as well. Reason? His injury woes – yes, they returned. For the uninitiated, two days prior to his match, Kyrgios had to leave his practice session due to wrist pain. He backed himself to overcome it and get through the tournament, but as it turned out, he couldn’t.

Following his tough decision to leave the BNP Paribas Open, Kyrgios sat down for a press conference, dated March 7. When asked if his outlook on playing the sport actively has changed due to injuries, he replied, “l’ve never been a player to play all year round, but when I do play, it’s usually the best tournaments in the world. It’s the Grand Slams, it’s the Masters events, it’s the best 500s. I do enjoy playing.” Continuing further, he added, “When I had the surgery 18 months ago, if I really didn’t want to play, I didn’t have to rehab, I didn’t have to try and get back on the court.”

But is this withdrawal particularly disappointing? “Yeah, it’s brutal, especially because I was having such a good year. I think that’s what is painful for me. And I think, you know, the coach I’m here with this week, my physio, I keep talking about that year, and it’s, like, you can’t expect that anymore. That’s I think for me what’s a bit heartbreaking just because I thought l’d figured it out,” the 29-year-old remarked.

He also reflected on his best possible season – the 2022 season. One, where he narrowly missed out on his first singles Major title. “I had an amazing season, literally knocking on the door of a Grand Slam, and then you just get pulled right back.” Back in July 2022, Kyrgios managed to reach his first-ever Slam final at Wimbledon. However, 24-time Major king Novak Djokovic reigned supreme over him with a final score line of 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.

Speaking of Indian Wells, Kyrgios’s best run at the event also came during the 2022 season itself. He reached the QF stage before losing out to 22-time Slam king Rafael Nadal.

While Kyrgios hasn’t gone that well on this comeback, primarily because of fitness reasons, did he expect to make a comeback at all?

When Nick Kyrgios revealed how injuries affected him

Nick Kyrgios‘s health-related woes began in January 2023 when he had arthroscopic knee surgery. It was done as a result of a lateral meniscus tear. He was expected to come back by the French Open that year, but he couldn’t due to a foot injury. When he was preparing for Wimbledon, Kyrgios suffered a torn ligament on his wrist, which forced him out of the remaining 2023 season. And it was only after having full wrist reconstruction surgery that he was able to come back in late 2024.

Last November, reflecting on his recovery phase during an interaction with 9News Melbourne, he revealed, “It was a 15 percent miracle chance that I was going to get back to playing at this level, and here we are.” What kept him going? “I always have wanted to leave the game of tennis myself. I wasn’t going to let this injury be the dictator of if I would ever play again,” Kyrgios added.

In another instance, he also confessed about the time when he feared he might never play. During an episode of the Nothing Major podcast from December 2024, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist remarked, “I’ve (had) major wrist surgery after 2022. I honestly felt I wasn’t going to play again. I was having pain in my wrist.”

Now that he’s taken a pause once again, it will be intriguing to see how long it takes him to return. Are you backing Kyrgios to make a solid comeback going forward in the 2025 season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.