Nick Kyrgios will have the final cortisone-patch treatment on his troublesome left knee the day before embarking on an Australian Open passage he is confident will carry him at least as far as the second week for the third consecutive year.
Draw? Against Portugal's world No.81 Gastao Elias? Tick, for the world No.14, and 2015 quarter-finalist. Crowds? Behind him, he believes. Have been so far. No reason why they shouldn't be. And Hisense Arena? A pet venue for Kyrgios, possibly his favourite court of all.
The Canberran said there had been "massive improvements" with the knee that had been troubling him since before Christmas, and hampered him during the Hopman Cup, where an MRI scan confirmed a bone problem. "I've done four or five treatments on it. Got one more tomorrow," he said. "It's feeling a lot better since I last competed, which was in Perth."
Despite having not played a tour-level match since his unfortunate end to the season at the Shanghai Masters in October, and having withdrawn from from last week's World Tennis Challenge exhibition in Adelaide, Kyrgios does not believe he will not be disadvantaged by his relative lack of activity. He tested the knee at Monday's Fast4 exhibition in Sydney, aware that if it could not withstand a shortened match there was no hope for best-of-five-sets. It was sore. But it passed.
"I've never been a player to play many tournaments before a grand slam," said Kyrgios, 21. "I like to come in pretty fresh. So my expectations are high. I still feel like I can do some major damage and get to the second week and really cause some upsets."
As well as the counselling that was required by the ATP in order to reduce his tanking suspension to three weeks, Kyrgios has been working with British strength and conditioning expert Martin Skinner, a recent addition to his team, although the weeks Skinner was out of the picture were apparently those when the knee trouble set in. "I kind of did my own thing. I think that's how my knee started flaring up a little bit. Live and learn ... hopefully next year I'll get it right."
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