Nick Kyrgios has sparked an injury concern ahead of Indian Wells after feeling pain in his wrist during a practice session. He is scheduled to play qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp in his first match on Thursday. The winner of that clash will go up against Novak Djokovic in the second round.
During practice, Kyrgios was seen nursing his right wrist before he was checked over by members of his team. He then walked off the court, leading to fears that he could be forced to withdraw from Indian Wells. He has faced problems with his right wrist before, having undergone surgery to repair a previous injury two years ago.
Before the Australian Open in January, Kyrgios again suffered pain in his wrist during his defeat to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the Brisbane International.
Speaking at the time, he said: “I’ve got six holes in my hand and one in my arm [from surgery]. Not one tennis player has ever had this surgery and come back and tried to play again.
“It’s all really an experimental [process]… no real protocol of how it’s going to be or how it’s going to pull up.”
It remains to be seen if Kyrgios will be fit enough to play at Indian Wells or if he will be forced to withdraw at the last moment. In 2023, he pulled out of the Australian Open and US Open on the eve of each tournament due to injuries.
There is still time for him to recover ahead of his opening match on Thursday, but he could be replaced by a lucky loser if there is any chance that it would aggravate his surgically-repaired wrist.
Michael Sandow, the specialist who helped Kyrgios, previously revealed the injury left him ‘very depressed’ because it was stopping him from living a normal life.
“When I first talked to Nick, he was very depressed and looking at never playing tennis again,” Sandow told the Canberra Times.
“He had very nasty wrist instability with a tear that can create significant wrist bone collapse and leads inevitably to arthritis. He was quite disabled when I first saw him. All he wanted to do was feed himself and do light activities.
“Nick’s now playing tennis again. If you talk to anyone in the wrist specialist world they would be quite amazed. You just don’t get these results. If he was playing football you could tape it up, but in tennis he’s putting huge amounts of load through the wrist.”
