Google News Nick Kyrgios: Mine mental struggles were 20 times more serious than Noami Osaka's
by DZEVAD MESIC | VIEW 3038
Former world No. 13 Nick Kyrgios doesn't believe that he is bad for tennis as he has acknowledged that there accounts on social media that post about him regularly. Kyrgios, now ranked at No. 77 in the world, has been one of the most attractive players on the Tour since turning professional.
But on the other side, Kyrgios has also been one of the most criticised players on the Tour over the last couple of years. “I only played five tournaments in two years, but if you look on social media there are accounts that post about me every two weeks.
If I'm so bad at the sport, why am I being promoted so much? Deep down I know I'm great at sports, personalities like that are needed, although early in my career I received a lot of hate, racism and other nonsense from some fans, it made me stronger mentally.," Kyrgios said, per Punto de Break.
Kyrgios compares his situation to Naomi Osaka's
Osaka refused to do press conferences at the French Open due to her mental health wellbeing. After her first round win over, Osaka pulled out of the rest of the French Open and also skipped the entire grass season.
"Something similar to Naomi Osaka happened to me, now that it is fashionable to talk about mental health, but in my opinion mine was 20 times more serious. They usually have good press, they do not receive hate messages or historical fines.
This sport was about to take me to a dark side, which happened for a while, mentally it was very hard at only 18 years old: I was one of the best-known players in Australia and one of the most criticized by the media. Now I am 26 years old, I am old enough to know that everything is shit, tennis had a hard time embracing a personality like mine," Kyrgios added.