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Australian tennis legend turned pundit Todd Woodbridge believes a lack of preparation will hinder any hopes of Nick Kyrgios repeating his Wimbledon heroics this year.
In 2022, Kyrgios made it to the final where he lost to Novak Djokovic in a thrilling contest, going down 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
In the wake of that loss, an emotional Kyrgios expressed his desire to finally break through and win a Grand Slam.
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Since then, he’s been plagued by a knee injury – which he aggravated – and has only played the one major tournament since, losing in last year’s US Open quarter-final.
Kyrgios pulled out of this year’s Australian Open and was absent from Roland-Garros too.
Wimbledon will mark the first significant competitive appearance of any kind this year outside of exhibition matches.
That’s a concern for Woodbridge, who believes match fitness could be his downfall.
“I think it’s going to be a tough ask for Nick and I think he probably realises that as well,” Woodbridge told Wide World of Sports.
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“When we saw him last year he came into Wimbledon with the best preparation that he’d had for any major championship, so it was no surprise to me that he was able to get through to a final.
“Having only played one match since basically October, he’s just got no miles in the legs and that’s going to be difficult.
“If there was a surface that he can come out and do damage on; it’s grass because he can keep the points short. He’ll have to serve really well.”
Woodbridge fears Kyrgios won’t be near the level where he was last year in which he had the mental agility in pivotal moments.
“I think the biggest thing is about confidence when you haven’t had the match played,” he explained.
“Last year he had the match play and you can see under pressure in key moments that he was there.
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“I think that’s going to be the tough part about this year’s Wimbledon for him is that he’s lacking in pretty much all of those areas.
“What you need as a player under pressure is just to instinctively create something and here he’s gonna have to think about it and you don’t have time to think at this level.
“I think he will rise to the occasion. The good news for him is he managed to hang on to a seed.
“So that means that he can get a couple of rounds in before potentially taking on another seed. So that would be third round.”
On Friday, Wimbledon released the men’s draw which could see Kyrgios face Russian star Andrey Rublev in the third round.
Assuming he gets beyond the third round, a repeat of last year’s men’s final with Djokovic in the quarters could be forthcoming too.
On balance, Djokovic would be the favourite given his incredible record and recent run of success that saw him crack a 23rd Grand Slam win.
“The thing is he may end up potentially getting a Novak in that round, which would be an interesting matchup for everybody,” said Woodbridge.
“If he was to get Novak, it’s one of the players that Novak does not want to see near him early because he knows the danger.
“I think Novak would rather see Nick later in the draw than earlier in the draw and that’s the type of fear factor that can bring to the tournament.”
Wimbledon gets underway in earnest on Monday with the first round.
Kyrgios will face Belgium’s David Goffin that night. Jordan Thomspon, Max Purcell, and Aleksander Vukic will also be in action for Australia on day one.
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