Kyrgios’ knee not in the best Nick

A TROUBLING knee injury is haunting Nick Kyrgios’ Australian Open preparations.

Despite being hampered in his loss to Croatia’s Borna Coric on Friday, the controversial star, pictured, was spinning an optimistic line afterwards about his Open fortunes.

Kyrgios, who played his first match in 11 months on Tuesday, did let slip during an oncourt discussion with medical staff that he’d had surgery on his left knee four-and-a-half months ago.

“It’s pretty sore. I was kind of expecting that,” Kyrgios said after the 6-3, 6-4 defeat. “I haven’t played in a year’s time.

“I’m happy with the load this week. That’s all I wanted to get out of it.

“I was expecting my body to not feel great, to be honest. I’m just going to maintain my body now.

Kyrgios contemplated pulling out a number of times during the third-round match of the Murray River Open and let his frustrations boil over late in the second set when he smashed his racquet and pitched it into the empty stand.

It was evident early on that Kyrgios was struggling when he dramatically reduced the speed of his serve.

Normally in the 215km/h territory, he was sending down 127km/h second serves in his opening service game as he battled with the knee problem.

Midway through the opening set he turned to his support crew and said: “I can’t land on my leg properly”.

After losing the first set, Kyrgios took a medical timeout, where he revealed to the ATP physio and doctor that he’d gone under the knife back in September.