Nick Kyrgios writes about ‘suicidal thoughts,’ melancholy

Tennis professional Nick Kyrgios says he had “suicidal thoughts” and handled melancholy and abuse of medicine and alcohol previously, the newest in a collection of high-profile athletes to talk publicly and albeit about their psychological well being.

The 26-year-old Australian, who has been ranked as excessive as No. 13 in singles and not too long ago gained the Australian Open males’s doubles title, wrote in a message posted Thursday on his verified Instagram account that he now’s “proud to say I’ve completely turned myself around and have a completely different outlook on everything.”

Kyrgios included {a photograph} of himself sitting at a tennis court docket that he mentioned was taken three years in the past on the Australian Open.

He known as that point “one of my darkest periods” and identified that his proper arm in that picture shows what he known as proof of “self harm.”

“I was having suicidal thoughts and was literally struggling to get out of bed, let alone play in front of millions. I was lonely, depressed, negative, abusing alcohol, drugs, pushed away family & friends,” Kyrgios wrote. “I felt as if I couldn’t talk or trust anyone. This was a result of not opening up and refusing to lean on my loved ones and simply just push myself little by little to be positive.”

Kyrgios, at the moment ranked 137th, is without doubt one of the most entertaining, enigmatic and polarizing athletes in his sport, concurrently supremely gifted and unconventional on the court docket and somebody who by no means has been shy about expressing his opinions off it.

This was his most self-revelatory dialogue of his mindset, struggles and new perspective.

And he supplied to attempt to assist others.

“I know that day to day life can seem extremely exhausting, impossible at times. I understand that you feel if you open up it may make you feel weak, or scared. I’m telling you right now, it’s OK, you are not alone. I’ve been through those times when it seemed as if those positive energetic vibes were never ever going to be reality,” Kyrgios wrote. “Please, don’t feel as if you are alone, if you feel as if you can’t talk to anyone, I’m here, reach out.”

He closed with: “This life is beautiful.”

At Melbourne Park in January, Kyrgios and longtime good friend Thanasi Kokkinakis grew to become the primary pair of Australians to win the boys’s doubles title on the Australian Open since 1997.

This was simply the fourth look as a pair in the principle draw of a serious event for Kyrgios and Kokkinakis.

In singles on the Australian Open, Kyrgios misplaced within the second spherical to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev.

Kyrgios is thought for each booming serves and trying to catch opponents abruptly with underarm serves. He’s as more likely to attempt a between-the-legs shot as he’s to smack a 100 mph forehand. He relishes enjoying to, and interacting with, a crowd, even chatting with spectators between factors to ask the place he ought to hit the ball. He additionally has been accused of not all the time giving his finest effort.

When he’s on high of his recreation, Kyrgios can beat anybody. He is certainly one of solely two gamers, together with Lleyton Hewitt, to win every of his preliminary matchups in opposition to Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

His 2014 debut at Wimbledon — as an adolescent who was ranked 144th — included a victory in opposition to Nadal on the best way to the quarterfinals. Kyrgios additionally made it to the quarterfinals on the 2015 Australian Open, however hasn’t been previous the fourth spherical at a Grand Slam event since.

Kyrgios has run into bother for his phrases and actions.

In 2019, he was positioned on a six-month probation by the ATP Tour after being fined $113,000 for eight infractions on the Western & Southern Open in Ohio, together with insulting a chair umpire and leaving the court docket to smash a pair of rackets.

Earlier that season, he was defaulted from a match on the Italian Open after throwing a chair. In 2016, he was suspended by the ATP for not making an attempt to win and for insulting followers in the course of the Shanghai Masters.