Halle Open: Nick Kyrgios withdraws from tournament following knee trouble, prioritises Wimbledon tilt

Nick Kyrgios won’t compete at the Halle Open in Germany as he deals with an ongoing knee injury.

The Australian has prioritised Wimbledon in July and wants to give himself the best possible chance of going one better than he did last year at SW19 when he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic.

He lost to Yibing Wu 5-7 3-6 in his first match back and during the action suggested his knee wasn’t responding well, saying that he could “feel it every point”.

The injury is not thought to be serious, but rather a precautionary measure to protect his Wimbledon chances.

“I won’t be able to compete at Halle this year,” he said in a video message on Instagram. “I’m still dealing with a couple of things with my knee, just trying to give myself the best opportunity to compete at Wimbledon.

“As you all know, that tournament means a lot to me and I just want to do everything right by my body. I didn’t want to go out there and not give you the same performance I gave last year.

“Hopefully next year I’ll be healthy enough to play.”

Kyrgios was due to play Lorenzo Sonego in the first round and has been replaced by lucky loser Aslan Karatsev.

The 28-year-old Kyrgios reached the Wimbledon final last year and took the first set against Djokovic before the now-23-time grand slam winner fought back to win 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6.

Wimbledon begins on Monday 3 July.