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Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open

Photo: Joel Carrett / AAP / IMAGO

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios is seriously considering ending his career.

"The reality is that part of me knows that my time in sport may be over," Kyrgios wrote in a column that appeared in several Australian newspapers on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old has reached a point "where life after tennis is a perspective that I find exciting."

The 2022 Wimbledon finalist has had to take a break for more than six months due to knee problems.

The Australian, who is known for his eccentricity, played his last game to date in June 2023 at the grass tournament in Stuttgart, where he was eliminated in the first round.

Before that, he had had to take a few months off due to injury.

Last year, Kyrgios made similar comments regarding the end of his career.

"If it were up to me, I honestly wouldn't want to play anymore," he said in a December podcast with British author Jay Shetty.

But he would still “play for one or two years, be at the top and stop according to my own ideas,” Kyrgios announced at the time.

Working as a commentator

That could now be over: In the past few months, Kyrgios has gained more and more of a foothold in the media sector.

At the Australian Open he works as a commentator and interviewer for the television station ESPN, and he also has his own TV show.

"I could travel around the world and make really good money commenting on sporting events or doing my own TV show," Kyrgios wrote about his possible future.

Kyrgios has been one of the most controversial professionals in world tennis for years, and he repeatedly causes a stir with scandals.

In 2022 at Wimbledon he argued with the referees, asked referee Damien Dumusois “Are you stupid?” and called him a “disgrace”.

In December he exchanged blows with Boris Becker on X, formerly Twitter.

Kyrgios had previously claimed: "The game was so slow back then." He had seen Boris Becker and other former stars play, and "(I'm) not saying they weren't good in their time, but to say they are the same today would be good is absurd."

Becker didn't let that sit.

kjo/dpa