Aussie favourite Kyrgios says his first-round loss might be his last singles appearance in Melbourne.
Nick Kyrgios’s long-awaited return to the Grand Slam stage was cut short as Briton Jacob Fearnley sent the ailing home hero out of the Australian Open in the first round.
A capacity crowd on Monday packed out Kyrgios’s favourite John Cain Arena for his first match at Melbourne Park in three years, hoping the tennis showman could shrug off an abdominal strain to battle through.
Most left deflated as Kyrgios went down swinging in a 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-6(2) defeat, with the injury hampering his serve and movement.
With most of his last two seasons wiped out due to knee problems and wrist surgery, a gloomy Kyrgios said he might have played his last singles match at Melbourne Park given his injury fatigue.
“I went out there, I would say 65 percent of my capacity,” he told reporters.
“For [the fans] to really see me fighting and still giving me that energy, it meant a lot, because I feel like I’ve given my life to tennis and I’ve tried to give them a show every time I go out there.
“Realistically, I can’t see myself playing a singles match here again.”
Earlier, Novak Djokovic survived a scare in his quest for tennis history before joining Carlos Alcaraz and defending champion Jannik Sinner in the second round.
Djokovic lost the first set to 107th-ranked American Nishesh Basavareddy in the prime-time evening match at Rod Laver Arena.
But the Serbian great, hoping to roll back the years and win an 11th Australian Open and record 25th Grand Slam singles title, recovered to pull through 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Djokovic was animated at the end and struggled to raise a smile.
Italian world number one Sinner was playing under a cloud after twice testing positive for traces of a steroid in March.
He denies wrongdoing and was cleared by tennis authorities, but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed and is seeking to ban him for up to two years.
Sinner was warmly welcomed at Rod Laver Arena before defeating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
“I was curious to see how it was. You never know what’s happening,” he said about the reception.
“I was happy about the crowd,” said Sinner, who has not tasted defeat since losing to Alcaraz in the Beijing final in October.
Alcaraz, a four-time Grand Slam champion but never a winner in Melbourne, had a couple of hairy moments before seeing off the challenge of Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko, 6-1, 7-5, 6-1.
“This is a tournament I really want to win one day, hopefully this year,” said the 21-year-old Spaniard.
In the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff powered through with minimum fuss as they seek to dethrone two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
