The mental health of star athletes has come into focus recently with stars like Michael Phelps and Simon Biles discussing their bouts with this issue.
But they aren’t the only ones struggling with mental health. Tennis star Nick Kyrogios admitted recently he had to enter a mental facility after his 2019 loss at Wimbledon.
“I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to [end my life],” Kyrgios said in the sixth episode of the Netflix show “Break Point” titled “Belonging,” which will be released on June 21.
The Australian star had just lost to Rafael Nadal when he started to have thoughts of ending it all.
“’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,“ he said.
So Kyrogios entered a psychiatric ward. He admitted that he was having issues before Wimbledon.
“If you look closely, on my right arm you can see my self-harm,” he said, now 28, said in an Instagram post last year.“I was having [thoughts of ending my life] and was literally struggling to get out of bed, let alone play in front of millions.”
The main reason he said he wanted to win Wimbledon was to prove to everyone he was one of the best players in the world and to shut his critics up. But clearly, the pressure he put on himself got to him.
Kyrgios returned to action this week at the Stuttgart Open.
