Nick Kyrgios, who is missing Davis Cup play this weekend, has confirmed he will play Indian Wells. The Australian was hoping to play against the Czech Republic, but had a bone stress injury to his back that wasn’t quite healed.
"My back's a lot better and I'm ready to go to America this weekend," Kyrgios told the *Sydney Morning Herald*. "I'm playing Indian Wells, then Miami, then heading home for a couple of weeks. I can't wait to get out there and start competing again. I was very close [to play against the Czech]. Therewas a point where I was going to go and play."
The Davis Cup team will include No. 38 Bernard Tomic, No. 69 Sam Groth, two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt and 18-year old Thanasi Kokkinakis. The tie will be played in Ostrava, Czech Republic, with the Czech team including No. 31 Lukas Rosol and No. 45 Jiri Vesely as the singles players. Tomas Berdych has decided not to play. Radek Stepanek, the usual second singles player, has been injured all year.
Kyrgios, ranked No. 36, reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and wants to make sure that he does not get hurt again. The 19-year-old said that the new Australian Davis Cup captain, Wally Masur, also wants him to be healthy and he wasn’t sure if he could handle best-of-five-set matches.
"We're more than capable of winning that tie without me, we've got some great players, so I think I made the right call," Kyrgios said. “I'll have an extra week of getting back into it and making sure I'm fully ready.
"It definitely could have been an injury that would have bothered me for the rest of my career. I was one step away from having two stress fractures in my back, so I really had to take care of that. We've got guys like Bernard, who's playing some good tennis now, Lleyton's obviously going to lead the group, and Grothy and Thanasi. Those guys can get the job done without me.”