Nick Kyrgios considered suicide as tennis star opens up on ‘abusing drugs’

Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios has revealed he considered suicide and spent time in a London psychiatric hospital in new episodes of the Netflix tennis series out next week. The Australian reached his first Grand Slam final in SW19 last year – and made a losing return to grass-court action after knee surgery in Stuttgart yesterday.

But Kyrgios, now 28, suffered a troubled 2019 where he was defaulted from the Rome Masters for throwing a chair and he was hit with fines totalling £89,000 ($113,000) for five different cases of unsportsmanlike conduct at the Cincinnati Masters. He was later given a suspended 16-week ban.

The Aussie lost in the second round at Wimbledon to Rafa Nadal four years ago – and was photographed drinking in the Dog and Fox. Speaking in Episode 6 of Break Point during last year’s Championships when his father Giorgos had travelled over from Australia, Kyrgios revealed: “My dad, I think he just wants me to be happy, because you know there were times at Wimbledon where I wasn’t at the best head-space.

“I was pretty bad here three years ago. 2019 was the lowest point of my career. That pressure, having all eyes on you, the expectation, I couldn’t deal with it. I hated the kinda person I was, I was drinking, abusing drugs, lost my relationship with my family, pushed all my close friends away.

“You could tell I was hurting. Like my whole arm was covered in scars – that is why I actually got my arm sleeve to cover it all. I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to commit suicide. I lost at Wimbledon. I woke up and my dad was just sitting next to me on the bed and he was, like, full-blown crying.”

Giorgos recalled: “I told him, this is not the right path mate. You know, you have got bigger and better things to chase. He was in tears.” Kyrgios added: “That was a big wake-up call for me. I was like, okay, I cannot keep doing this. I ended up in a psych ward in London to figure out my problems.”

Kyrgios’s sister Halimah added: “I just don’t know what happened. I have just never seen someone go through (that) and that’s why sometimes, oh my God, I get so upset when someone says bad things about him. Because they don’t know.” The former world No 13 won the Australian Open doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis last year before reaching the Wimbledon final.

But he gave clues to his underlying insecurity when arriving at SW19 last year. “I know I sell a lot of tickets and I sell out stadiums all around the world but I know I am not really accepted, especially in the tennis world, being a white privileged sport,” he said.

“When I was young, I was told you could only make it if you ticked these certain boxes. Being bullied at a young age because I was short, fat and brown, it scared me for sure. People confuse my confidence for arrogance at times because they have no idea what I have gone through. I want to prove that I deserve to be here.”

After losing to Novak Djokovic in the final, Kygios said: “I definitely feel more loved and appreciated. I felt like I belong now.” In episodes of Break Point released just before the Australian Open, he talked about his drink problem and his “hurt” at suffering racism during his career.

Break Point is aimed at taking the sport to a new, younger audience after the runaway success of Drive to Survive for Formula One. Five new episodes of Netflix’s Break Point will be available on Wednesday June 21.