Australian Open: Nick Kyrgios confirms his grand slam return from lengthy injury lay-off

Nick Kyrgios says the “only motivation” behind his return to tennis is to win a maiden grand slam title as he confirmed he would attempt to play at the Australian Open.

The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up said he was poised to play again after a “brutal” ordeal that has included two knee operations and surgery to fix a rare and serious wrist injury.

Kyrgios, who has only played a single competitive match in the last two years, told an audience at an SXSW Sydney speaking event that he intended to return to Melbourne Park.

“The (wrist) injury I had was brutal … the surgeon said I probably wouldn’t be able to play again,” he said on Thursday.

“But I said whatever, just try and get me another two, three years of my career. Everything has gone semi-well and I will be playing the Australia Open this summer.

“I just want to be out there, lighting up the crowd and playing in front of my own country. Whether it is good or bad, it will certainly be a lot of fun.”

The former world No.13, whose ranking had slid out to 470 by October last year, said he still harboured ambitions of winning a major.

“My only motivation to come back and play is to try and win a grand slam … I’ll give it one more shot,” he said.

The 29-year-old was a surprise inclusion in promotional material for the Australian Open at its official launch last week after tournament director Craig Tiley had expressed scepticism at similar claims made by Kyrgios before this year’s instalment.

Tiley said he expected Kyrgios to return this time and guaranteed him a wildcard into the main draw if he was unable to use an injury-protected ranking.

Retired star Lleyton Hewitt said Kyrgios faced the “biggest challenge” of his career in preparing his body for the rigours of a grand slam again.

He said Kyrgios would need to overcome inevitable injury setbacks between now and January.

“He’s still got to get over the niggles obviously, and even when you start to up your practice, you’ve (got to) be able to push through those setbacks as well,” Hewitt said last week.

“That’s how it’s going to be for the couple of months leading in … he’s going to have to try and play as many practice sets (as possible) because going into a grand slam best-of-five sets and not hoping just to go through one round either.

“Wimbledon, I saw Nick hitting with a lot of the guys over there, and the US Open he was hitting on an indoor court next to Thanasi and myself one day, so he’s certainly doing a lot more stuff … it’s just whether the body can hold up.

“It’s probably the biggest challenge he’s ever faced. The game keeps improving, the guys keep taking it to new levels as well, and for him to come in and try to play, there’s going to be a lot of guys who are able to push him.”