Netball | The Standard | Warrnambool, VIC

It'd be a Christmas miracle for the Canberra International to land Nick Kyrgios for the January tournament, but the door isn't completely shut on the possibility. The entry deadline for the tournament is the end of next week, with a full player list announcement expected shortly after that point. Kyrgios is yet to enter his name with the Canberran under an injury cloud dealing with a wrist issue. However, there's little doubt Canberra International organisers would give Kyrgios right up until the last moment to put his hand up. Kyrgios has been the name on the lips of nearly every Australian Open lead-up tournament organiser with the 28-year-old an obvious big-name attraction for the summer of tennis. For example, Adelaide International tournament director Alicia Molik said she will try to get hometown hero Thanasi Kokkinakis to actively recruit his good mate Kyrgios to play. If Kyrgios is healthy enough to compete, the fairytale of returning to his stomping ground to make his comeback from injury might not be enough either. Kyrgios made it clear in a recent interview in the US that money talks for him. The tennis star revealed he only plans to play up to two more years at full throttle, before he becomes more selective for events offering "nice money". Commentator and Tennis Australia director of performance Wally Masur believes that the next edition of the Canberra International will attract some top talent, whether that includes Kyrgios or not, helped by the women's event being promoted to a WTA 125 competition in line with the men's tournament. "You're going to get some unbelievably good quality tennis," he said. "The very best players in the world, like the top 10, they don't like to play the week before a slam because a slam is so gruelling, so they practice and they go in fresh. "But you're going to have a lot of players ranked just outside of that top 10, pushing all the way through to the top 100." Last year Hungarian Marton Fucsovics was the men's champion, while Great Britain's Katie Boulter won the women's title in Canberra and backed it up with a strong season, reaching a career-best world No.50 ranking. Canberra International tournament director Lawrence Robertson is yet to decide if ACT teen rising star Charlie Camus is given a wildcard. Tennis Australia expects Kyrgios to be at the Australian Open "in some form" as major doubt lingers over the enigmatic entertainer's tennis comeback. The 2022 Wimbledon finalist remains sidelined with knee and wrist issues and for a second successive year seems unlikely to take part at Melbourne Park in January. "The update is day-by-day with him," Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley said on Monday of Kyrgios's availability. "He'll be best to assess that ... we're going to have Nick here in some form or another in January. "Hopefully it is to play because he's a crowd-pleaser. We love watching Nick and love having him around." Kyrgios was a commentator at November's ATP Finals in Italy, where he said "the stars would need to align" for him to play at the Open. In an interview with English broadcaster Piers Morgan last week, the 28-year-old gave no indication he would be ready to return to the court anytime soon. But Open organisers received a major boost last Friday when Rafael Nadal announced he will make his eagerly awaited comeback at the Brisbane International in January. The legendary Spaniard will make his return at the Australian Open warm-up event before taking the court in Melbourne for what could be his farewell Down Under. The 37-year-old hasn't played a competitive match since getting knocked out in the second round of this year's Open by American Mackenzie McDonald when struggling with an injured hip. "It's fun talking to Rafa, that's why this job is great ... what a beautiful person," Tiley said. "He was most concerned that he wasn't going to be ready to play; he didn't want to commit to playing and let his fans down by then having to pull out. "He's healthy, he's practising well, he's playing like Rafa plays and going all out. "It took a while to make the announcement simply because he wanted to make sure he was going to be able to come and play."

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