Nick Kyrgios returns to tennis, losing doubles with Gael Monfils in Washington DC

Nick Kyrgios has come through his first match since March, and just his sixth this year, completing about an hour on court in a men's doubles defeat at the ATP Tour's DC Open.

Partnering French veteran Gael Monfils, and playing in front of NBA star Kevin Durant, Kyrgios faced third seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys.

Monfils was broken in the opening game, and while Kyrgios held his first serve, both players were then broken to lose the first set 6-2.

The second was much the same, Monfils broken early and Kyrgios late as they dropped it 6-2 again to lose in 58 minutes.

The entertainment potential of the Kyrgios-Monfils pairing drew a massive crowd to the Grandstand court in Washington, but it never truly eventuated as the Australian looked hampered and uncomfortable.

"Knee cooked but fans still f***ed with us," Kyrgios wrote on Instagram after the match.

The 30-year-old has battled wrist issues, but his knee has troubled him of late, and he was seen limping and poking at the injury.

Nonetheless, just being on court was something of an achievement for Kyrgios, who has been dogged by injury since reaching the Wimbledon final in 2022.

That year ended with him withdrawing from a match in Tokyo with a knee injury, and he has played only 10 matches (six singles, four doubles) for two wins on tour since.

Kyrgios last played doubles at the Australian Open in January, retiring in the second set of his opening match with Thanasi Kokkinakis while trailing fellow Aussies James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic 7-5, 3-2.

He subsequently played three singles matches, retiring when 7-6(8/6), 3-0 down in the first round at Indian Wells in March. The wrist he had an operation on in September 2023 was still an issue.

He reached the second round at the Miami Open later in the month, beating McKenzie McDonald for his lone singles win since 2022.

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In the second round, he lost to Karen Khachanov, and this outing in the US capital was his first match since injuries continued to be an issue.

Kyrgios has a current ATP ranking of 640, but has activated his protected ranking of 21 to be included on the official entry list for the US Open in New York, where he is also scheduled to play in the reformatted mixed doubles alongside three-time major winner Naomi Osaka, starting in late August.

In another match at the DC Open, Chris O'Connell went down 6-3, 6-2 to American Ethan Quinn, ranked five places lower at world number 82, and later, Vukic takes on big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

On the WTA side in DC, 19-year-old Maya Joint's first match as she builds up to the US Open ended in disappointment, beaten 6-3, 6-3 in 80 minutes by Canada's Leylah Fernandez.

Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin are also in the ATP 500 event but have received first-round byes.

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