Nick Kyrgios was admitted to a London psychiatric hospital because he contemplated suicide during Wimbledon in 2019, Australian media reported on Wednesday citing a new episode of the Netflix documentary Break Point.
The Australian has previously detailed his mental health struggles and self-harm during that dark period in his life. But in the new series of ‘Break Point’, to be released on June 21, he said he needed hospital treatment.
“I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to commit suicide,” he said, according to The Australian newspaper.
“I lost at Wimbledon. I woke up and my dad was sitting on the bed, full-blown crying. That was the big wake-up call for me. I was like, ‘OK, I can’t keep doing this’. “I ended up in a psych ward in London to figure out my problems.”
Kyrgios posted a lengthy message on Instagram last year about his mental health issues, linking it to a photo from the 2019 Australian Open in which he pointed to marks on his arm.
“If you look closely, on my right arm you can see my self-harm,” he said then.
“I was having suicidal thoughts and was literally struggling to get out of bed, let alone play in front of millions.”
Crowd-pleaser Kyrgios had a roller-coaster year leading into the 2019 season and was frequently criticised for his on-court antics. Supremely talented, he was also combustible and earned a reputation for outbursts and meltdowns on court.
He lost to Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon in 2019 and said he wore a white arm sleeve to cover up evidence of self-harm.
“I was drinking, abusing drugs, lost my relationship with my family, pushed all my close friends away,” he reportedly says in the documentary.
Since then, Kyrgios has “completely turned myself around” and in a career highlight made the Wimbledon final last year. Now ranked 25, he returned to action this week at the Stuttgart Open after knee surgery in January.
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