Nick Kyrgios will return to competitive tennis at the start of next year ahead of the Australian Open.

The former world No.13 will play at the Brisbane International in what will be his first ATP event since June 2023 following a lengthy battle with injury. Kyrgios has undergone multiple surgeries on both his knee and wrist. Since reaching the quarter-finals of the 2022 US Open, he has only been able to play three matches and is currently without a ranking due to his absence.

During his hiatus from the sport, the 29-year-old contemplated retirement due to the slow speed of his recovery from surgery. He has won seven ATP titles so far in his career and reached the final at Wimbledon two years ago, where he was beaten by Novak Djokovic.

“It was a wrist reconstruction, so there were four holes drilled in my hand, and there’s a piece of string kind of holding my wrist together and my fingers looked like sausages when I got out of the surgery,” the Australian Associated Press quoted Kyrgios as saying.

“I was in a cast for about 12 weeks, no movement, and I basically just had to relearn how to use my right wrist again, even just carrying grocery bags, anything was super painful.

“But then I started getting some real improvement at the nine-month mark … to a point where I feel like I’m playing how I was in 2022.”

During his absence, Kyrgios was a commentator for multiple networks at various events. His decision to return to life as a player was influenced by comments made by 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic. Earlier this year at Wimbledon, the two had a practice session together which ended up being a key source of inspiration for Kyrgios.

“I was hitting with Novak and when he said to me, ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve had surgery’, and that was a big motivation to say like maybe I’m actually making some inroads and some progress into getting back because I didn’t really know,” he said.

“That was a big drive for me … so, if he didn’t say that, I don’t know if I would have been motivated and if I would have kept pushing on the thought, but that was definitely a big part of the journey when he said that to me.”

The Brisbane International is a combined event that will take place during the first week of January. Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin and Ajla Tomljanovic have also confirmed their entry into the tournament which begins on December 29th.

Kyrgios is one of only two Australian men to have won the Brisbane trophy since it became a Tour-level event in 2009. He won the tournament in 2018.