Nick Kyrgios is out of Australian Open 2023 with a knee injury. Despite heading to the first Grand Slam of the year as one of the favourites, Krygios pulled out on the eve of his opener and is now slated to have a surgery. But the Aussie has already made his prediction for the Australian Open tournament, where he named Novak Djokovic as the favourite to lift the title, but has also warned the Serb of a “dangerous” rival and it wasn’t defending champion Rafael Nadal.
The Australian Open was supposed to be a big step for Kyrgios. After a successful 2022 where he reached his maiden Slam final, at Wimbledon, the world No.19 was among the favourites to make a deep run into the tournament with a possibility of a rematch with Djokovic as well. Besides his singles, he was also defending his doubles title which he won with Thanasi Kokkinakis 12 months back. But the knee injury denied him the opportunity as he now going to have a surgery and is expected to return in March for Indian Wells.
However, before leaving, in an interview with The Age, he gave his prediction for the Australian Open. “Look, it depends on Novak’s health. If he’s healthy, it’s hard to go past Novak. Daniil is absolutely dangerous on this surface,” he said.
“He came out yesterday with a statement win and barely lost any games. I hope an Aussie can go far. Medvedev or Djokovic, I can’t count out [Rafael] Nadal either but I’d probably say Djokovic.”
Nadal survived a difficult round 1 match against 21-year-old Jack Draper on Monday while Medvedev cruised to the second round with straight set win. Djokovic, on the other hand, comfortably beat Roberto Carballés Baena in his opener on Tuesday.
