Nick Kyrgios makes retirement admission immediately after first round loss at Australian Open

Nick Kyrgios has conceded he may never play another singles match at the Australian Open again.

The Aussie superstar’s first grand slam match in over two years ended in disappointment as he battled through an abdominal injury in a straight-sets loss to Brit Jacob Fearnley.

The 29-year-old looked a shadow of his former self with his injury severely hampering his serve.

He battled on bravely because he didn’t want to let fans down, and had the packed crowd on their feet with some vintage efforts in the third set.

After looking down and out, he fought to the very end before crashing to the 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) loss.

Speaking after the match, Kyrgios said he was “heartbroken” at being unable to perform at his show-stopping best, but added that he only played on for the packed John Cain Arena crowd.

“Realistically I can’t see myself playing singles again here,” he said.

“It was special (atmosphere), taking that in, it was pretty good. I knew that I have doubles so I kind of was taking everything in tonight, in those moments, it was nuts.

“I didn’t want to just throw in the towel and walk off or retire. I was hurting physically but I respect my opponent and the fans that waited hours to come see me play.”

He later added: “Honestly, the reason I kept playing, tried to play tonight, was because of the fans. As I said, I don’t know how many times I’m going to be back here again.

“That’s why I didn’t have headphones on, I wasn’t listening to music. I walked out there today, wanted to hear the crowd. There were some special moments.”

Kyrgios still plans to team up with Thanasi Kokkinakis in the doubles and will continue to play out the season in singles.

“It’s hard. When you’re competing for the biggest tournaments in the world and you’re struggling to win sets physically, it’s pretty tough,” he continued.

“But I’ve still got a long year ahead. I’m trusting the process that I can still be able to do some cool things this year at some stage.”

Kyrgios was proud of his comeback from the crippling wrist injury, but also said the abdominal injury made it too hard to compete.

“I continued to stay motivated through all those days when I was watching everyone else play, I was on the couch like in a cast. I stayed motivated,” he said.

“I trained. I was in the gym. I’m in good shape.

“All the niggles I guess, my body compensating with the wrist, it’s tough. It’s just not enjoyable for me. It’s not enjoyable for me to go out there and not think tactically, not think I’m enjoying the atmosphere, where am I going to hit the ball.

“It’s like what am I doing to manage my body? This is painful, OK, I can’t do this because this hurts, that’s not tennis to me. That’s not sport.

“I’m happy to play through a bit of discomfort but when it gets to the point where I’m one of the biggest servers on tour and I’m getting out-served tonight ... Nick Kyrgios without his serve, I’m not a threat to many players.”

Despite the immediate devastation, Kyrgios was targeting a deep run at Wimbledon.

“Obviously Wimbledon is a big one for me. I still feel like obviously, if I don’t have an abdominal strain, I feel when I sustained that five days before a grand slam, it’s not ideal,” he said.

“Hopefully, if my body’s feeling good, I’ll be able to make some noise at Wimbledon.”

He also said his journey is not over and he has no regrets about his career to this point.