Fan favourite Nick Kyrgios will play his first grand slam tournament since 2022 at the Australian Open in January.

Organisers announced on Friday that Kyrgios, who has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, will use a protected ranking of No 21 to gain entry to the main draw.

The one-time Wimbledon singles finalist is one of 11 Australians confirmed as main-draw starters, including 10 in the men’s field, led by top-10 star Alex de Minaur.

Canberra-born Kyrgios, who reached a career-high world ranking of 13 in 2016, made it to the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2015.

The polarising, shot-making wizard reached the Wimbledon singles quarter-finals in 2014 before making the tournament’s final in 2022, losing to Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic in four sets.

Kyrgios also made the quarter-finals at the US Open in 2022, his last major before injuries caused an extended absence from the court.

The supremely talented Kyrgios would dearly love to add the singles crown in Melbourne to the men’s doubles title he won with fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis in 2022.

The other Australians who gained direct entry to the men’s draw are De Minaur, Kokkinakis, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson, Chris O’Connell, Aleksandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, James Duckworth and Adam Walton.

Olivia Gadecki is the only Australian woman to gain direct entry.

Another player making a comeback to the sport is Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic, the Swiss star returning after the birth of daughter Bella in April.

Kyrgios and Bencic are among six men and six women competing in Melbourne using protected rankings, setting the main-draw entry ranking cut-off for both fields at world No.98.

There have been 104 players directly accepted into both the men’s and women’s singles draws.

Eight other places are reserved for wildcard entries.

To complete the 128-player fields, the remaining 16 places will be filled by qualifiers. The final round of the qualifying tournament will be held at Melbourne Park on 9 January, before the tournament starts on 12 January.

Italian world No 1 Jannik Sinner will return to Melbourne in a bid to defend his title.

Djokovic will be hoping for an 11th Australian Open crown, which would give him an all-time record of 25 grand slam singles titles.

In the women’s draw, the top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, will be looking for a hat-trick of titles.