On Saturday, Rafael Nadal said the balls that would be used at this year’s Australian Open were a “worse quality without a doubt”.
Just before 4pm AEDT on Monday, the same could be said of the Australian Open as a whole as Nick Kyrgios – with trainer Will Maher beside him – announced his withdrawal from an event that had him as its local centrepiece.
As Kyrgios confirmed he would withdraw from the event due to a knee injury, to say the air came out of the main interview room would be an understatement.
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The 27-year-old entered his home slam a genuine chance of winning the tournament and coming off a career-best season.
His star appeal remained as powerful as ever, shown when an exhibition match with Novak Djokovic sold out at Rod Laver Arena within minutes.
Little did the sold-out crowd know on Friday night that Kyrgios’ lighthearted match with Djokovic was doubling as a decisive stress test for a small lateral meniscus tear.
His withdrawal adds to a nightmarish lead-up for the Australian contingent, with reigning champion Ash Barty retired, top-ranked female Ajla Tomljanovic withdrawing due to injury and Kyrgios following suit a day out from his scheduled opening round match with Roman Safiullin.
Kyrgios, perhaps more than anyone, was acutely aware how big a chance he was of making a deep run at this year’s event.
“Look, I‘m not doubting I will be back to my full strength and playing the tennis I was playing prior to this event. Yeah, I‘m devastated obviously,” he said.
“It’s like my home tournament. I’ve had some great memories here. 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.
“All I can do now is just look forward, do what I need to do and come back.”
The longer his career has gone on, Kyrgios has been more and more open about his battles with mental health and the weight of expectation, so one can only imagine how he is feeling now.
It’s made the wait for his next grand slam opportunity all the more agonising, with Kyrgios himself saying he felt “like s**t” after his loss to Karen Khachanov in the US Open quarterfinals last year.
“I feel like I’ve let so many people down. … I feel like these four tournaments (Grand Slams) are the only ones that ever are going to matter,” he said at the time.
“It’s just like you got to start it all again. I have to wait till (the) Australian Open. It’s just devastating.”
Now, Kyrgios will have to wait until at least the French Open in late May for his next chance at a major, but in reality his next genuine chance will be at Wimbledon in early July.
Kyrgios’ hiatus from competitive tennis began in October last year and a return for the Indian Wells Masters in March would stretch that absence to nearly half a year.
A hiatus is not foreign to Kyrgios, but this time around it’s different given he actually wants to be playing.
It’s a brutal blow for a player who is in the best form of his career and genuinely appears to have turned a corner on in his relationship with tennis.
Like those balls Nadal bemoaned on Saturday, the tournament is of a worse quality as a result and the air has been taken right out of the Australian contingent.
