Far from
the tennis courts,
Nick Kyrgios has been open about his struggles with mental
health and suicidal thoughts. In a recent interview on the Jay Shetty Podcast,
the Australian tennis player shared a challenging moment he experienced just
minutes before a match in Acapulco, Mexico.
“There was
a tournament in Mexico, Acapulco, where I was thinking about, I was having
suicidal thoughts and, you know, I was just on the balcony of my hotel and I
was genuinely thinking about it,” Kyrgios said.
“And my
team was like, 'Oh, we’ve got to play in 10 minutes.' And then I'm going out on
court, played amazing, won the tournament,” former world No. 13 added.
“And
everyone globally was thinking, wow, is this the person that we've all been
waiting for.“When I was really on the brink of everything. And that's so scary
because no one else knew what was going on. It was really hard,” 2022 Wimbledon finalist claimed.
A testing 2019 for Kyrgios
The Australian tennis player acknowledged that his most complex season
was 2019. Notably, that year he was the champion at the Acapulco Open, with a
remarkable campaign where he defeated the first seed Rafael Nadal, third seed
John Isner, and the second seed Alexander Zverev in the final.
“And it was, it was hard. And I look back and I just don't know how I
got out of it to be honest, I was such a mess. And the worst thing was the
media, I was having decent results during that time.”
“And the media was like, 'Okay, is this a new Nick Kyrgios? Is this the
Nick Kyrgios?' And I was like, 'This is the darkest period of my life,” the
Aussie added.
That season for Kyrgios was overall inconsistent, alternating between
ATP and challenger tournaments, but he managed to finish as the world No. 30,
thanks to a second title at the ATP 500 Washington Open.