Nick Kyrgios credited four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka on Sunday for helping him deal with his inner demons. After the Australian put on a clinical display to dispatch Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the third round of the Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, he once again spoke about the mental struggles he had endured in recent years.
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Kyrgios said he had moved away from the “dark places” in his life and found a kindred spirit in Osaka, who pioneered the issue of mental health in sport.
“Naomi kind of pulled the pin at that French Open (in 2021) when she (revealed that) she was dealing with all that kind of negative emotion, and when she just kind of pulled the pin, I kind of related to that,” Kyrgios said.
“I felt like I was constantly playing so much under that mental stress and negativity that I couldn’t really function under the pressures anymore. I couldn’t function with negativity.”
Osaka withdrew from last year’s French Open following a dispute with tournament organizers over media duties, explaining that she had been suffering from depression for almost three years.
His revelation inspired several top athletes to go public with their own fights.
“I felt like I was constantly playing so much under that mental stress and negativity that I couldn’t really function under the pressures anymore. It couldn’t work with negativity,” Kyrgios told reporters in Miami.
“Every day it was constant negativity from you, eventually from my family, eventually from my friends, from everyone. There was no positivity, and it was just consuming me and I really hated my life.
“It’s taken me a long time and obviously I’m getting to a point where I’m happy now…I had to fix it myself.”
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