Nick Kyrgios in tears after retiring hurt at Indian Wells in latest injury setback

Nick Kyrgios has broken down in tears after his latest singles comeback suffered a major blow when he retired hurt at Indian Wells.

The injury-haunted Australian pulled out of his first-round match against the ­Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp due to a right wrist injury while trailing 7-6 (7), 3-0 at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday night.

Kyrgios, who had a set point in the tie-break, became visibly upset while talking to his trainer before wiping away tears and walking over to Van de Zandschulp to concede the match.

“I wasn’t too confident that I was going to be able to play today, to be honest,” Kyrgios said. “Two days ago in practice I had to stop because I felt pain in my wrist. I felt like it was OK to take the court. Just got progressively worse … started feeling sharp pain in my wrist.”

Difficult scenes 💔

An emotional @NickKyrgios is forced to retire 7-6 3-0 down to Van de Zandschulp due to wrist pain#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/wWL9ESesIY — Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 7, 2025

Kyrgios would have faced Novak Djokovic in the second round with victory against Van de Zandschulp, but will now continue his battle to overcome the wrist injury.

“This process has been ­probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my life,” Kyrgios said of his emotional on-court reaction. ­“Reality, it’s not too bad, but for my tennis career, it’s by far the biggest.

“Just the amount of work that goes in when I go back home or when I’m not playing, it’s not fun. I know that I can’t really be doing any more to try and get back and play.

“I guess it’s just the amount of work I put in and I’m still having so much discomfort in my wrist. That’s I guess why I got a bit emotional towards the end because it’s one of my favourite tournaments.

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“We go back to the drawing board as a team, and we just try and figure out and navigate a way to just get through these matches. If I’m not finishing matches, that becomes a concern. It sucks, because, as much as I have had a love/hate relationship with this sport, I want to play.”

The 2022 Wimbledon finalist and former world No 13, who is 30 next month, lost in the first round of the Australian Open in January, which prompted him to state that he had probably played his last singles match at Melbourne Park.

The Australian Open saw Kyrgios’s first appearance at a grand slam since reaching the 2022 US Open quarter-finals, as his career has since been derailed by injuries.

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