Kyrgios’ troubles began when he withdrew in the days leading up to last year’s Australian Open before undergoing knee surgery.
He complained of knee soreness in his Stuttgart return, but still planned to compete at that year’s Wimbledon, only to pull out with a serious wrist injury only hours after doing a pre-event media conference at the All England Club.
Kyrgios has not played on the main tour since, but has ramped up his hitting and fitness sessions, including at Wimbledon with Novak Djokovic, then again at the US Open.
Hewitt watched the sessions at those two majors, and hopes Kyrgios will not only be able to return this summer but remain healthy enough to climb near the top of the sport again.
Loading
“He’s going to have to try and play as many practice sets [as he can] because going into a grand slam, [with] best-of-five-sets [matches] … it’s about trying to back up, and being able to go as far as you can,” Hewitt said.
“At Wimbledon, I saw pretty closely, Nick hitting with a lot of the guys over there, and at the US Open, he was hitting on an indoor court next to Thanasi [Kokkinakis] and myself one day, so he is certainly doing a lot more stuff – it’s just whether the body can hold up, day after day.”
Tennis Australia has frozen groundpass ticket prices at $49, but dynamic pricing remains for the finals, with tickets in the first few rows for the men’s final soaring to almost $6000 in some cases at the 2024 event.
Tiley defended the use of dynamic pricing as being “based on demand” and said that half the tournament’s tickets cost less than $50, which was “unbelievably good value”.
A record 1,020,763 fans attended this year’s Open, which went for 15 days instead of 14 after starting on a Sunday for the first time, with that number climbing to 1,110,657 once opening week – including qualifying, charity events and high-level practice matches – is factored in.
Among the new additions will be “Top Court”, an entertainment precinct at Birrarung Marr featuring live music, gaming, a padel court and retail pop-ups, and targeted at younger fans, which Tiley jokingly referred to as “brat summer”.
Australian Open boss Craig Tiley has big goals for his tournament again.Credit: Getty Images
There will also be increased shade across Melbourne Park, while the courtside bar will return, and fans will be able to order food and cocktails and watch the world’s best players practice in an area dubbed “the village”.
Tiley told this masthead he wanted to double the 2024 opening week attendance of almost 90,000 at next year’s event, but stopped short of revealing his overall goal.