He said he contemplated giving tennis away with his wrist slow to heal from surgery 15 months ago but the record-setting Serb encouraged him to continue after they hit at Wimbledon this year.
With his last tour match a short-lived return to grass at Stuttgart in June 2023, Kyrgios was in London working in commentary.
“I was hitting with Novak and when he said to me, ‘it doesn’t look like you’ve had surgery’, and that was a big motivation to say like maybe I’m actually making some inroads and some progress into getting back because I didn’t really know,” the one-time world No.13 said.
“That was a big drive for me … so, if he didn’t say that, I don’t know if I would have been motivated and if I would have kept pushing on the thought, but that was definitely a big part of the journey when he said that to me.”
Kyrgios will first suit up in the World Tennis League exhibition event in Abu Dhabi from December 19. The mixed team event also attracts the likes of Iga Swiatek, Casper Ruud, Aryna Sabalenka, Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev.
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Kyrgios won the Australian Open men’s doubles title in 2022 with Thanasi Kokkinakis and the two are planning to go again in 2025.
“Everyone loved it last time, we loved it, it was so much fun,” Kokkinakis said last week.
“It’s definitely not going to be the priority for us … singles is definitely the goal.
“If you have a big five-setter the last thing you want to do is go out and play doubles the next day, but we’ll play it by ear and see how it goes.”
