Nick Kyrgios admits the “reality” of playing best-of-five-set tennis at the Australian Open is setting in after suffering an injury scare in his comeback match.

Playing his first ATP-level match since June 2023, Kyrgios was beaten 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 7-6(3) by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in round one of the Brisbane International.

The battle of the big-servers was as tight as many expected, but the main talking point was the Australian receiving medical attention on his wrist mid-match.

The 29-year-old has suffered a string of injuries in recent seasons but a wrist issue has been the most significant, with Kyrgios undergoing reconstruction surgery in September 2023.

Speaking after the match, he admitted that he was feeling “constant pain” in his wrist despite some “positive” takeaways from his comeback match.

He said: “I don’t really have any protocol of how it’s going to be or how it’s going to pull up.

“So me and my physio, we are taking it as it comes. If we can get through a match, we get through a match. How it pulls up tomorrow, I have no idea. It’s throbbing like s**t right now.

“There is a lot of positives. But again, it’s how much do I want to take of the trauma on the body, the pain.

“I guess, when I played the majority of my career, I was playing pretty much pain-free. You go out there for two, three hours, you’d enjoy the battle and you would just focus. Where now, there’s just constant pain in that wrist.”

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All eyes will now be on whether Kyrgios will be in action at the Australian Open, his home Grand Slam tournament.

The former Wimbledon finalist has not played a Grand Slam match since the 2022 US Open and will have to play for at least three sets should he want to win a hypothetical opening match.

A singles quarter-finalist in Melbourne 10 years ago, Kyrgios conceded that the reality of his wrist issue had “set in” ahead of potentially playing a five-set contest.

He added: “I was, like, really excited for the Aus Open, but after today – obviously I’m super excited If I’m able to play, I’m able to play – but the reality kind of set in to me.

“That’s a best-of-three match with my wrist. Not only is a Grand Slam mentally really draining, you’re there for two-and-a-half, three weeks, physically a grind. It’s one of the hardest thing to do in any sport, to win a Grand Slam in men’s tennis.

“I think I almost need a miracle and I need the stars to align for my wrist to hold up in a Grand Slam for sure.

“If this [Brisbane] was a Grand Slam, we may still be out on court, and I don’t know how I’d pull up the next day or the day after. Yeah, that’s kind of the reality setting in.”

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