Nick Kyrgios: Australian Tennis star contemplated suicide after 2019 Wimbledon loss to Rafael Nadal

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has revealed that he battled suicidal thoughts following a defeat at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

The comments from Kyrgios, widely published in Australia on Thursday, were based on interviews for the upcoming Netflix documentary series, 'Break Point'.

After the loss at the hands of Rafael Nadal in 2019, Kyrgios revealed he went to the psychiatric ward of a London hospital to figure out his problems.

'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,' the 28-year-old said. 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 said he was 'drinking, abusing drugs' and his relationships with family and friends were deteriorating.

'That pressure, having that all-eyes-on-you expectation, I couldn't deal with it. I hated the kind of person I was,' he said.

Kyrgios, who has previously discussed his mental health struggles on social media and in interviews, has spent many months on the sidelines with injuries since reaching the 2022 Wimbledon final, which he lost to Novak Djokovic.

He returned to the elite tour this week at Stuttgart after seven months off but lost in the first round.

(With PTI inputs)