The latest setback for Nick Kyrgios has the Australian tennis player wondering aloud about his future.
A nagging wrist injury forced an emotional Kyrgios to retire from his first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open Thursday night while trailing 7-6 (7), 3-0Â against Botic Van De Zandschulp.
The same wrist injury caused Kyrgios to miss almost the entire 2023 and ’24 seasons.
“It’s all an experiment at this point,” Kyrgios said after Thursday’s match in Indian Wells, Calif., per ESPN. “I was told I was arguably maybe not ever playing tennis again. (But) I feel I’m like right there. I feel like I can compete.
“(Van De Zandschulp) beat (Carlos) Alcaraz at (the 2024) US Open in straight sets, and I’ve got set points against him in the first set. I’m there, but if I’m not able to finish matches it doesn’t really matter at this point. I’m not too sure right now. I don’t even … I’m not sure how it’s going to pull up tomorrow. It feels relatively pretty sore at the moment. We’ll see how it goes.”
Kyrgios, 29, is now 0-3 this year.
He said he aggravated the wrist at practice on Tuesday, but tried to play through the pain.
A Wimbledon finalist in 2022, Kyrgios also has been known for being unpredictable and volatile at times, putting him on numerous highlight reels. His career-high ranking is No. 13.
Kyrgios isn’t certain whether he’ll play in the next tournament in Miami.
“Obviously the time frame of Miami is not ideal, but, you know, I was scheduled to play that, so I will see how my wrist responds,” he said. “And if not Miami, I will keep looking forward. I can’t keep looking back and being disappointed. Otherwise, I don’t know how much enjoyment I will have in that.”