Following a prolonged absence from tennis due to injury, Nick Kyrgios is more fired up than ever to make his return to the court.

The driving force behind his long-awaited comeback is his desire to “shut people up”, particularly those who have doubted him over the years.

Kyrgios has battled wrist and knee injuries over the past two years, competing in just one tour singles match since October 2022. However, the tennis firebrand has now confirmed that he will make his return at December’s World Tennis League tournament in Abu Dhabi.

“I am coming back because something is keeping me around the game,” he recently told Code Sports.

“I have beaten pretty much every person that has been put in front of me, made a final of a Grand Slam, won a doubles title in a Grand Slam, won multiple titles and made money.

“But I think the one thing that is now on my target is a Grand Slam. I think that will be the only thing that will shut people up at the end of the day.

“That’ll be my deep motivation.”

Kyrgios’ bold declaration and confirmation of his sporting comeback follows Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley’s recent revelation that he expects to “see Nick on the court playing” at the tournament in January.

“We would love to have Nick back playing in 2025, we believe he will be,” Tiley said.

“He’s out there practising, playing, been in touch with his team over the last couple days, and he’s fully expecting to play, and we expect to see Nick on the court playing.

“The confidence that we get about Nick playing is that in his preparation, we know he’s doing more than he’s done before.

“We know that he wants to do it. We know that he’s mentally preparing to get ready to play in January. He’s got to be physically healthy to do that.

“No player wants to walk onto the court unless they know they can be in a position where they can win and Nick knows, as a team with Tennis Australia, we’d love to see him on the court.

“So we fully expect to see him.”