Nick Kyrgios set to make Grand Slam return in next month’s Australian Open after struggling with injuries for two years

Nick Kyrgios will make his long-awaited Grand Slam return at the Australian Open in January.

The 29-year-old will make his return to the World Tennis League court this month after playing just one match of professional tennis in the past two years due to injury.

He had ruled himself out of the 2023 Australian Open due to a knee injury that required surgery, before being forced to withdraw from the French Open later that year with a foot injury.

However, it has now been confirmed that Kyrgios will finally return to a tennis major for the Australian Open next month.

Kyrgios, who will play with a protected ranking of 21, will be one of six men and six women using a protected ranking at Melbourne Park.

Kyrgios previously claimed in October that he wants to win a Grand Slam and ‘shut the people up’.

The Australian tennis star has been sidelined for the past year after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ligament in his wrist

Kyrgios appears to have worked hard to get back to full fitness, telling 9News: “Honestly, this is probably the best I’ve felt in two years.”

He revealed he only had a ’15 per cent chance’ of playing at his best again, before lifting the lid on how difficult his comeback had been.

“Physically it was brutal,” Kyrgios said. ‘Mentally I wouldn’t allow myself to do it [to give up].

‘I have always wanted to leave tennis. I wouldn’t let this injury be the determining factor if I ever played again.’

The former Wimbledon finalist has previously opened up about the severe pain he felt in his wrist, which left him “unable to open doors or pots”, according to The Canberra Times.

He had suffered a complete rupture of the scapholunate ligament in his wrist – a band of tissue that provides strength and stability to a person’s hand.

Since then he has taken some innovative measures to get his body back to full strength, revealing he has even gone as far as hitting fluffy tennis balls that children use.

“I honestly didn’t feel any improvement in my wrist,” he told 9News.

Kyrgios opened up about his ‘brutal’ return to full fitness after a spate of injuries

‘I started hitting fluffy balls that children under 10 learn with. I had to start from there and basically learn how to use my right wrist all over again.”

Like Kyrgios, Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Belinda Bencic will also use her protected ranking to enter the main draw of the Australian Open.

British stars Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage have also been confirmed for the main draw.