Nick Kyrgios falls off ATP rankings – but will he return to action this year? And what is Kyrgios’ protected ranking?

Nick Kyrgios has dropped off the ATP Tour rankings after almost an entire calendar year of inactivity.

His last win on tour was over a year ago at the 2022 Japan Open.

The points from that tournament have now dropped off Kyrgios’ ranking, so he has no points against his name.

Kyrgios’ career-high ranking was in 2016 when he reached world No. 13.

Last year he got back into the top 20 after arguably the most impressive summer of his career.

He would then play the Japan Open, where he won two matches before withdrawing ahead of his quarter-final against Taylor Fritz because of a knee injury.

He returned to play doubles at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis, but in January underwent knee surgery. Recovery from that kept him out for most of the first half of the year, before a wrist injury saw him miss Wimbledon and then the US Open.

“Heartbroken about the US Open. Will be back…my wrist is not ready yet to compete,” he wrote on Instagram after missing the final Grand Slam of the season.

“But may I remind people I have a protected ranking of 21. When I choose to be back, I’ll be back where I belong.”

Kyrgios has now fallen off the rankings, although may be on court before the year is out.

Alexander Bublik, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet are among the other players set to compete at the event, which uses a different scoring system to regular tennis and is a shorter format.

However, Kyrgios was also supposed to play previous UTS events earlier this year in Frankfurt and Los Angeles but pulled out due to injury.

Kyrgios has a protected ranking of 21.

A protected ranking is designated to a player when they are injured and unable to compete for at least six months.

The position of the ranking is determined by the player’s average ranking position during the first three months of their injury. It allows the player on their return from injury to use their protected ranking position to gain entry into tournaments, as their current ranking position after injury would be too low to secure a place in the draw.

As Kyrgios returned for one match in Stuttgart, the ATP rules state that the protected ranking “shall be in effect for either the first nine tournaments that the player competes in using the Entry Protection (excluding wildcards and entries as a direct acceptance with his current position in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings) or for the period up to nine months beginning with the first tennis event that the player competes in, whichever occurs first.”

Kyrgios will be hoping to return in time for the 2024 Australian Open.