Nick Kyrgios foot wound forces him to withdraw from French Open

The Canberra Times can reveal Kyrgios cut his foot on a chaotic morning at his Canberra home after a man allegedly threatened his mum Nill with a gun and then stole his Tesla.

In the aftermath and when the adrenaline wore off, Kyrgios realised he had cut his foot in the scramble to help his family and track down the thief.

The incident left family members shaken up and concerned about their safety and it wasn't until much later they realised the seriousness of Kyrgios' foot injury.

Manager Daniel Horsfall said the world No. 26 had hoped to increase his on-court training work load over the past three weeks, but the wound had not yet properly healed.

It forced Kyrgios to pull out of an exhibition match against Holger Rune in Denmark and the French Open, but he is hopeful he will be fit in time to play at Stuttgart from June 12 to launch the grasscourt season.

The foot injury setback continues Kyrgios' tough year, which started with knee surgery in January before the morning robbery earlier this month and the passing of his grandmother.

Speaking to clear the air about why Kyrgios had to delay his flight to Europe - which was scheduled for later this week - and dispel speculation Kyrgios' knee was the problem, Horsfall said: "We see no reason why we can't make it to Stuttgart, that's the goal.

"The knee surgery went as well as it possibly could and his rehabilitation was fantastic and we were at the point where we were doing on-court loading and management.

"We needed to be at a point that he could comfortably play five sets. Right when we were getting stuck into the loading period, the [alleged] armed robbery happened at his house. During the ordeal he cut his foot quite badly.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

"We don't know when it happened, but it's quite a large laceration. The location of the wound, it's been open for almost a week and a half now. It's not healing correctly and he can't put in the work on court, so he's been off court for almost two weeks now.

"His knee is fine, it's just that he can't get his loading up so we can manage the rest of his body correctly and he doesn't injure something else when he gets out there."

Kyrgios was scheduled to play in Denmark next week before returning at Roland Garros for the first time since 2017.

He hasn't played a tournament since October last year after scans showed a cyst growing on his meniscus, forcing him to withdraw from the Australian Open.

The silver lining - if you can call it that - is that Kyrgios will be able to spend time in Canberra with his family after his grandmother passed away this week.

Kyrgios took to social media to pay tribute to his dad George's mother, saying: "Seems like I can't catch a break right now. RIP Yiayia, the best we could ask for. Go enjoy your time with Papou now."

He later added: "Thanks for all the love. Not gonna (sic) lie it's pouring hard at the moment. Energy seems everywhere."

Kyrgios has been splitting his time between Canberra and Sydney to get himself ready to play again.

Despite a love-hate - mostly hate - relationship with tennis over the years, the 28-year-old is itching to get back on to the court and show the world what he can do.

Kyrgios enjoyed the best season of his career last year, winning an Australian Open doubles title alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis and making the final of Wimbledon. He also ended a three-year title drought with a win in Washington DC.

Now he will be starting all over again to try to recapture the form that saw him rocket up the rankings. He is planning to play in the European grasscourt season before tackling tournaments in the United States and the Laver Cup at the end of the year.

"We'll start the process once the wound starts to heal and scab. We're definitely still trying to make the first tournament of the grass season," Horsfall said.

"In terms of his knee, it couldn't have gone any better. There were no hiccups and he was probably in better shape than he was this time last year, but we haven't been able to get his court hours up.

"It would have been doing a disservice to everyone to send him out there unprepared. He just misses the competition ... this is the longest he's been out of tennis because of injury. We would've been ready to go, but we had to readjust the schedule.

"We'll probably play a few more tournaments in the second half of the year to balance it out."

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.