SYDNEY: Former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios thinks his well-documented mental health issues have taken a couple of seasons off his career and he will play on for only one or two more years after he finally gets back on court.
The 28-year-old has struggled with knee, foot and wrist injuries since pulling out of this year’s Australian Open at the 11th hour and has played only one tour match since the Japan Open in October 2022. The Australian confirmed at the weekend that he would not be playing in his home Grand Slam for the second successive year and there was more bad news in a new podcast for fans hoping he might play on well into his 30s.
“I only want to play for about another one to two years, and be at the top, and go down my own terms,” he said in an interview on the ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’ podcast.
“I would hate to have another surgery or anything like that. I think I’ve still got the ability to have a good one to two years and then that’s it.
“I think I’ll be at peace with everything I’ve achieved and … I’m going to have to just say: ‘Look, to everyone out there who wants me to play more, you’re just going to have to be OK with me not playing anymore’.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Kyrgios discussed his image in the game and his relationship with the media, as well as revisiting the mental health issues that had him contemplating suicide in 2019.
“If I had a bit of a normal career and I flew under the radar, I don’t feel I’d feel this way, but those couple years really, I think, put a lot on my age,” he added.
“It’s just hard. I am tired. I’m tired of playing tennis …”
The peak of his career so far was undoubtedly his run to the Wimbledon final in 2022 and Kyrgios said he was reluctant to return to court until he was fit and healthy enough to reproduce the sort of form he showed at the All England Club.
“It’s hard. It’s hard,” he said of his rehabilitation.
“I’m going to the gym, I’m doing my rehab, these surgeries aren’t just like little surgeries, they’re like you might have something seriously wrong with your body and it takes time.
“I’m only human … it takes months and months of strength, consistency, diligence to get back to playing tennis at that high level again.
“I don’t want to get back on tour and just play decent, I was competing for a Grand Slam, so I want to get back to that level. So it might take a bit more time.”