Nick Kyrgios attempted a comeback at the 2025 Indian Wells, but it unfortunately ended with tears and retirement.
Kyrgios has yet to fully return to the tennis courts since the end of the 2022 season. He played one match in 2023 and two matches this year before making his way to Indian Wells for the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season.
Unfortunately, Kyrgios had a proper reality check already during one of his practice sessions. He was forced to cancel his practice after feeling pain in his wrist. However, he promised to play, and he did.
The Australian’s first opponent was Botic van de Zandschulp, who managed to record some impressive wins in the past 12 months. The Dutch player got into the main draw as a lucky loser, and he was motivated to do well.
Van de Zandschulp sprinted out of the gates, quickly leading 4-1 in the match after breaking his opponent’s serve twice. But Kyrgios was then able to massively increase his level and recover both lost breaks, even leading 5-4 in the opening set.
After both players then held their serve, the first set had to be decided in the tie-break. Van de Zandschulp had his first set point at 6-5 and his opponent two points later. But Kyrgios couldn’t use his set point chance, and he lost the tie-break 7-9.
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist was then broken at the start of the second set, and down 0-3, Kyrgios called a physio to discuss his wrist problem. The 29-year-old player was very emotional during the consultation.
Eventually, Kyrgios assessed that he wouldn’t be able to continue competing, which is why he elected to retire from the match.
After the match, the 2022 Australian Open doubles champion admitted that he had doubts about playing, but even after his retirement, he wasn’t sure what he could have done differently.
“I wasn’t too confident that I was going to be able to play today, to be honest. Two days ago in practice I had to stop my practice because I felt pain in my wrist. I felt like it was okay to take the court.”
“Just got progressively worse. Started feeling sharp pain in my wrist. I mean, I thought the level was good. I played some really good tennis, and it was an entertaining first set, I could have easily taken that first set.”
“I don’t know whether I could have done something different in my preparation. I don’t know. Yeah, two days ago definitely set me back a bit. That’s pretty much it.”
Normally, after a loss in Indian Wells, Kyrgios would look forward to competing at the Miami Open. In this situation, however, the Australian will have to focus on the recovery process.
