Nick Kyrgios was admitted to a psychiatric hospital while contemplating suicide during the 2019 Wimbledon tournament, the Australian player reveals in a new episode of the Break Point series, which will air on Netflix from June 21.
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“I actually thought about killing myself,” he said, according to the Australian newspaper.
Kyrgios, the controversial crowd favorite, had a very difficult year in 2019 and was regularly criticized for his on-pitch antics. He was beaten by Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon and said he wore a sleeve on his right arm during that match to cover up his scars.
“I’ve been drinking, I’ve been on drugs, I’ve distanced myself from my family and loved ones. I lost at Wimbledon and when I woke up my father was sitting on my bed crying. It was the click, I said to myself + Ok, I can’t go on like this +. I ended up in a psychiatric ward in London to get my issues sorted out,” he explains, still according to The Australian.
AFP
“If you look closely, you can see signs of self-harm on my right arm. (…) I had suicidal thoughts, I didn’t want to get up and play alone in front of millions of people,” he wrote on his Instagram account in February 2022 about his mental health three years earlier.
Since then, Kyrgios has “completely recovered in the right direction” until last year’s Wimbledon final, losing to Novak Djokovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7/3).
He dropped to 25th in the world rankings after suffering a knee injury in January and returned to competition this week in Stuttgart. He was out of shape and was beaten by China’s Yibing Wu (64′) 7-5, 6-3 in just over an hour.