The 2024 season has just ended with Italy’s second victory in a row at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga. The new season will begin as early as the end of December with the United Cup, in which world number 2 Alexander Zverev will also be present. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will start their 2025 directly at the Australian Open, preferring to lengthen their preparation and using the first rounds in Melbourne to find the right rhythm.
Unlike previous years, Novak Djokovic – who missed the last official tournaments of 2024 – will play a tournament in the first week of 2025 to get to 100% at the Happy Slam and try to win the 25th Major title of his legendary career.
Nick Kyrgios© Australian Open/Instagram – Fair Use
The former world number 1 could choose to play the Brisbane International, a tournament that will also be very interesting for the return of Nick Kyrgios. The Australian ace – who has played just one tournament in the last two years – wants to return to the top level of competitiveness and win a big title before retiring from professional tennis.
The 2022 Wimbledon Championships finalist will be one of the headliners in Brisbane before playing the Australian Open, in which he hopes to achieve a prestigious result in front of his fans. It will not be easy to climb the hierarchy of the ATP tour for Nick, who has been away from the courts in the last two sets and has had a serious injury.
In the last year, the talent from Canberra has dedicated himself to various activities related to tennis. He has been a commentator in several tournaments, has given many interviews and has resumed practicing in view of his return to the tour. Kyrgios also attracted attention for his fierce criticism of world No. 1 Jannik Sinner after he was hit by the notorious doping case.
Kyrgios’ proposal
The hope of fans and insiders is that Nick will return to amaze everyone on the tennis court by being one of the most spectacular players of the modern era.
The Australian has talked a lot about tennis in recent months and has also launched some interesting proposals on the format of Grand Slams and Masters 1000 tournaments. The former world number 13 was a guest on the latest edition of ‘The AO Show’ podcast, in which he said that mixed doubles is often more interesting than men’s doubles.
“I would do mixed doubles at Masters events, because in what other sport can you get your favorite female athlete and your favorite male athlete competing on the same side of the net for good prize money? It’s not not possible. You don’t see it in any other sport. So Masters events, instead of men’s doubles or women’s doubles, there should be mixed doubles,” Nick explained.
He played with WTA legend Serena Williams at the 2014 IPTL: “There’s plenty of good players I’d love to play with, past and present. I’ve had the honor of playing with Serena and Venus. I would have liked to play with them. I would have loved to have played with Ash Barty at some stage. I think she, by far, was one of the most talented female players to ever play the game. I think we would have done some damage on the court.”
Nick’s return is very close
The Australian champion also reflected on the format of Grand Slam tournaments. In his opinion, the matches are too long in the first rounds and fans can’t stay in front of the TV for that long. It is not the first time that it has been suggested to play best-of-three sets matches in the first week of the Majors.
Nick Kyrgios© Nick Kyrgios/Instagram – Fair Use
The 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic also agreed with this proposal, but ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi does not seem to want to go in this direction. According to the latest rumors, Gaudenzi is also reflecting on the possibility of playing the Masters 1000 finals in the best of five sets.
“I think best-of-three sets up until the quarter-finals, and from then on it’s best-of-five. That’s what I would immediately change at a Grand Slam,” Kyrgios said during the podcast.
“When Li Tu won a set against Carlos Alcaraz early on at the US Open. Now it’s one set all, and then it’s one set to go – that could change Li’s entire career. He beats Alcaraz on the Centre Court at the US Open – you become a name. I think that would be a cool thing to change” – he concluded.
Kyrgios’ considerations are not entirely correct, given that Alcaraz had won both the second and third sets against Li Tu.