The four-time Grand Slam winner helped him deal with his inner demons through her openly stated mental health problems, the Australian said on Sunday.
“Naomi sparked something in me at the French Open (2021) when she revealed that she was dealing with all these negative emotions. I felt like I was constantly playing under so much mental stress and negativity that I couldn’t work with the pressure anymore,” explained Kyrgios. Before the French Open last year, Osaka initially announced that it would not make any press appointments and then canceled altogether. She later revealed that she had been suffering from depression for almost three years. Since then, several athletes have spoken out about their own mental issues.
Kyrgios said there has been so much negative from the media, sometimes from family or friends, or anyone at all. “There was nothing positive and it consumed me. I honestly hated my life.” But now he has reached a point where he is only happy. “I had to fix it myself.”
The former number one, Victoria Asarenka, is also not doing well at the moment. She gave up on Sunday against the only 16-year-old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova with a score of 2:6.0:3. “I shouldn’t have gone out on the pitch today,” Asarenka, who is from Belarus, later said in a statement. Her life has been “extremely stressful” in her personal area in the past few weeks. “I hope that I can come back after a break,” said Asarenka.
From a sporting point of view, in addition to Olympic champion Alexander Zverev’s promotion to the round of 16 with a smooth 6:2.6:2 over Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS), Jannik Sinner’s match against Pablo Carreno Busta caused a stir: The Italian defended at 5:7.7 :5,7:5 over the Spaniard no less than five match points.
Source: Nachrichten
