Australian Open 2025: Nick Kyrgios aims to return to Grand Slam play after more than 2 years away

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Love him or hate him, Nick Kyrgios is good for tennis and the sport will get a boost from his return to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open — or so he says.

“We watch sport because we want personalities. ... It’s like drama, theater. For me, being personally back, it adds a bit of question marks to, like, ‘What is going to happen today?’ I love that. Every time I step out on court, I don’t know if I’m going to be super controversial in a good or bad way,” 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Kyrgios said on Friday, when he indicated he thinks he'll be able to compete despite a recent issue with an abdominal muscle.

“Throughout my career, it hasn’t always been good,” continued the 29-year-old Australian, wearing a green hat in support of his favorite NBA team, the reigning champion Boston Celtics, “but it’s added a lot of excitement to the game.”

As play begins at Melbourne Park on Sunday (Saturday EST), Kyrgios is sure to be among the players garnering the most attention from spectators, media and other athletes, assuming, that is, he is fit enough. He played a total of one singles match across 2023 and 2024 combined while dealing with knee and wrist problems.

He made it sound after a practice session Friday morning — and before a second one planned for the afternoon — as if he'll be ready for his first major in more than two years.

“It's good to be back. I think it’s important,” Kyrgios said. “I think the sport was getting a bit mundane.”

No matter what anyone thinks of Kyrgios — and everyone, it seems, has an opinion, one way or another — there can be no doubt that he is anything but dull.

That goes for on the court, from the booming serves to the between-the-legs shots to the back-and-forths with chair umpires and spectators to the racket smashes and fine-drawing outbursts. Away from the tour, he never seems far away from headlines, either, including when he escaped conviction on a charge of common assault when he pleaded guilty to shoving a former girlfriend to the ground during an argument in 2021. And then there are the times when he offers his thoughts, as a TV commentator or via statements at news conferences or online, that upset folks, including lately about doping cases involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek.

“I know that people don’t like when I just speak out about things,” Kyrgios said recently, “and (am) honest about things.”

The most recent major tournament that Kyrgios was able to participate in was the 2022 U.S. Open.

He returned to competition last week at the Brisbane International tuneup tournament, playing one singles match and joining Novak Djokovic for two doubles matches.

When it comes to Kyrgios' talent, other players tend to agree with Jordan Thompson's assessment Friday: “If he’s fit, he’s a contender.”

Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and a three-time runner-up at Melbourne Park, said a healthy Kyrgios is “definitely great for tennis.”

“I would love to see him play against Carlos (Alcaraz) and Jannik (Sinner). His biggest weapon is his serve (and) he has the skills and the hands,” Medvedev said. “I’m only happy if he comes back to tennis.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Australia's Nick Kyrgios answers questions at a press conference ahead of the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Australia's Nick Kyrgios plays a backhand return during a practice session ahead of the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

FILE - Andy Murray of Britain cries and waves to the spectators after he and his partner Daniel Evans defeated by Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the United States in the men's doubles quarterfinals tennis match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

FILE - Naomi Osaka of Japan returns a shot to Coco Gauff of the United States in a women's singles match for the China Open tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

FILE - Australia's Nick Kyrgios returns the ball from between his legs to Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the final of the men's singles on day fourteen of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, July 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

FILE - Nick Kyrgios, of Australia, tosses his racket as he plays Karen Khachanov, of Russia, during the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - Serbia's Novak Djokovic, right, celebrates beating Australia's Nick Kyrgios in the final of the men's singles on day fourteen of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, July 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)