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Australian tennis legend Todd Woodbridge criticizes Nick Kyrgios for exposing himself to the serious knee injury that ruined his Australian Open by failing to prepare properly
- Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open on Monday afternoon
- Star injured her knee two weeks ago and did not respond to treatment
- Woodbridge said his mediocre preparation is partly to blame.
Todd Woodbridge has shifted some of the blame for Nick Kyrgios’ devastating knee injury at the feet of the Australian star, saying he lacked preparation for the Australian Open.
Kyrgios made a surprise withdrawal from his home Grand Slam on Monday afternoon, revealing that he had suffered a partially torn meniscus and had a cyst in his knee after injuring himself around two weeks ago.
The 19th seed will return to his hometown of Canberra for surgery next Monday, and while the problem is not career-threatening, he and his physio Will Maher decided not to make it worse at Melbourne Park and risk permanent damage.
Kyrgios was devastated when he announced he would withdraw from the home Grand Slam just over 24 hours before he was due to play his first match.
Australian men’s singles hope (pictured with girlfriend Costeen Hatzi) hurt his knee two weeks ago after a previous ankle injury left him unable to play in warm-up tournaments.
Kyrgios had less than ideal preparation for the Open after spraining his ankle, and that injury kept him out of previous tournaments and saw him withdraw from the United Cup at the end of December, just 24 hours before he was due to play.
‘Ultimately, you have to look at the preparation beforehand, was it exactly right for what I needed?’ Woodbridge said Tuesday.
“I hope you take a look at what he did at Wimbledon last year when his preparation was great.
“The run-up from a physical standpoint, to then go into the preliminary tournaments, play enough matches to be able to go into Wimbledon knowing that everything was in that positive framework that he talked about, that his ball hit was fine, that his health was good, gave him the opportunity to reach a final.
Todd Woodbridge pointed out the vast difference between Kyrgios’ preparation for his stellar run at Wimbledon last year and how the star prepared himself for action at Melbourne Park.
The Australian posted a grisly image of the fluid that had to be drawn from his knee with a syringe as the clock ticked down to get ready for the Open.
‘Was that the preparation that happened before this summer? That is the question.
“If you were looking back at his schedule, you’d say it was hard to see that preparation when he was flying around the world playing exhibition events.”
Kyrgios injured his ankle and ruined his preparation while playing in an exhibition tournament in Dubai in December.
That came after he came under fire for snubbing Australia’s Davis Cup team so he could take home a six-figure payment to play in a tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Shortly after his shocking announcement on Monday, Kyrgios posted a lurid image of fluid drained from his knee shortly before leaving the tournament.
Maher explained that he and his protégé used last Friday’s charity match against Novak Djokovic to assess whether the knee would hold up over the course of the two weeks of the grand slam, but the star made a poor recovery.