- Nick Kyrgios withdraws from Halle Open With Knee Injury
Nick Kyrgios says he will give himself every chance to be ready for Wimbledon after withdrawing from the Halle Open with an ongoing knee problem.
The Australian, 28, underwent surgery on his left knee earlier this year.
Runner-up at the All England Club last year, Kyrgios has played just one match in the past five months.
“As you all know, that tournament [Wimbledon] means a lot to me and I just want to do everything right by my body,” Kyrgios added.
Kyrgios suffered a first-round loss to China’s Wu Yibing at the Stuttgart Open last week, struggling with his movement during a straight-set defeat.
He reached the semi-finals in Halle last year and then made a maiden Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.
In a video released by Halle’s organisers, Kyrgios said he is still dealing with “a couple of things with my knee”.
“I didn’t want to go out there and not give you the same performance I gave last year [at Halle]. So hopefully next year I’ll be healthy enough to play,” he said.
After his loss in Stuttgart, Kyrgios tweeted: “It’s a process to get back to where I was. I know it’s hard for you to see me perform like today, but I need more time and hopefully can get back to where I was.”
Kyrgios is scheduled to play in Mallorca next week, while Wimbledon starts on 3 July.
Meanwhile, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas came from behind in a tough encounter with France’s Gregoire Barrere to win 6-7 (6-8) 4-6 6-7 (3-7) in his opening-round match at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Halle.
The Greek trailed by a set and a break but wore Barrere, ranked 58 in the world, down to seal the win after his grass-court campaign got off to a tricky start last week with defeat by Richard Gasquet in s’Hertogenbosch.
The world number five was knocked out in the second round in Halle on his two previous appearances and will face Chilean Nicolas Jarry in the next round on Wednesday.
Later, top seed Daniil Medvedev beat American Marcos Giron 6-4 6-3 in his opening round match having suffered a first-round exit last week at the Libema Open.
The win is the Russian world number three’s first since triumphing at the Rome Open in May, but means he has recorded more wins than any other men’s player this year with 40.
On Tuesday, two-time Halle finalist Alexander Zverev, ranked number 23 in the world, will take on Austrian wild card Dominic Thiem.
