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Nick Kyrgios has been hit with another injury setback and will miss Indian Wells and Miami as he recovers from the January injury that kept him out of the Australian Open.
Kyrgios went under the knife after pulling out from Melbourne Park and the United Cup, and at the time, his manager said he was targeting the start of the American hard court season in Indian Wells.
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The withdrawal will see Kyrgios take a hit on his ranking of World No. 19 however it wouldn’t be catastrophic.
Last season he was a quarterfinalist at Indian Wells and fourth round in Miami, meaning he will lost 270 points he won’t defend this year.
On the current ATP rankings, he would drop to about 26 in the world.
If he can’t get back until Wimbledon, he would be unable to defend a total of 650 points but that would have him at around 33 in the world on current rankings.
And Kyrgios isn’t defending any points at the French Open and no players are defending points at Wimbledon over the tournament’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players last season.
While his new timeline puts him on track to return during clay season and compete at Roland Garros, the combination of the physical brutality of clay, particularly on the knees that have given Kyrgios so much trouble over the course of his career, as well as the fact that reigning Wimbledon finalist has historically preferred grass, may mean that he skips the clay season entirely.
Kyrgios only played one clay event in 2022, making the quarterfinals in Houston.
The reigning Wimbledon finalist last appeared on tour in October last year in Tokyo, also reaching the quarterfinals there.
He also played an exhibition tournament in Dubai in December, as well as an Australian Open warm-up match against Novak Djokovic before pulling out of his home major.
Kyrgios and his physio revealed in January that the star had a cyst on his meniscus that required invasive arthroscopic surgery, on top of a tear in his left knee.
He said the Australian Open was one of the “most important tournaments” of his career and the decision to withdraw wasn’t easy.
“I’m obviously extremely disappointed,” he said before conceding it was simply bad timing.
Physiotherapist Will Maher told the media Kyrgios had tried everything to be able to compete in Melbourne.
He said the tennis star even attempted to drain the cyst just a week out from playing with hope it would relieve some pressure.
“We used the charity event against Novak as a gauge to see if he could compete at that highest level. He didn’t pull up great and he still tried to give himself every chance in the following days to have subsequent training,” Mr Maher said.
“But it was clear that with each passing session he was getting sorer and sorer.”
Kyrgios will almost certainly be targeting a return to full fitness to go one step further than he did last year at Wimbledon, where he lost in the final to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
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