Kyrgios reacts after Bryant passes away: "When I woke up to the news, it was pretty emotional"

Nick Kyrgios had a brilliant Australian Open losing out to Rafael Nadal but also gaining adulation from critics about his game in Melbourne.

Kyrgios believes he has turned a corner as a person and wants to keep making progress in that regard.

“I feel like I've made progress as a human. A tennis player… I want to keep going in this direction, for sure,” said Kyrgios.

The Aussie is a known fan of basketball and he reacted to Kobe Bryant passing away and said that it was hard to take from his perspective. He walked onto court against Nadal wearing a Bryant Lakers Jersey visibly emotional..

“I never met Kobe. But basketball is practically my life,” said Kyrgios. “I watch it every day. I've been following it for as long as I can remember.

“When I woke up to the news, it was pretty emotional. It was pretty heavy, like, all day. Obviously, I was having basketball on at my house, watching the games. I was heavy. Yeah, it's just tough. It's horrible news.”

“If anything, it motivated me. If you look at the things he stood for, what he wanted to be remembered by, I felt like, if anything, it helped me tonight,” said Kyrgios. “When I was down a break in the fourth, I was definitely thinking about it. I fought back.

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