How would a tennis fan remember Nick Kyrgios today? As a Wimbledon 2022 finalist, who played a terrific game against Novak Djokovic? Or was the 2022 Australian Open men’s double winner? If the current circumstances of the Aussie tennis star are taken into account, maybe neither. As he recovers from the surgeries, Kyrgios’ commentary stint at the Wimbledon and the US Open has put him on the negative side of the tennis fans. While everyone wonders the reason behind his words and actions, Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rennae Stubbs has a few words to share in Kyrgios’s defense!
It has been around 2 years since Nick Kyrgios stepped on the tennis court to play a match. However, he was back in the circuit as a commentator during the Grass and Harcourt swing. On her September 10th, The Rennae Stubbs podcast, she concluded the major happening at the US Open. One of the people in the news, other than the top players and the winners, was Kyrgios. However, things didn’t end on a positive note for him. Why?
The major happening regarding Kyrgios at the US Open were as follows: His consistent posts on Jannik Sinner’s doping scandal. His throwback post with Sinner’s GF, Anna Kalinskaya with a controversial caption, got fans raging against him. And Stubbs came out with reasons as she consoles Kyrgios amid the backlash. She said, “I just think sometimes with Nick, the problem is he was. I’m convinced, as a child, he was bullied quite significantly.”
These words are quite astonishing, as back in 2022, Stefano Tsitsipas called Kyrgios a ‘bully’. Suggesting that the tour should act to stop his on-court antics, he had said, “It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does. He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself.” Though only the Aussie tennis player can confirm what is true, Stubbs further reasoned her earlier words, while somewhere concurring Tsitsipas words.
While dwelling on his childhood, she further stated that, “He grew up quite heavy. I mean, he was fat. Look at the photos of him as a kid. He was dark-skinned in Australia, so he would have been bullied a lot as a kid in Australia. And I think now that he’s older, he’s sort of turned that into that sometimes.”
According to Stubbs, his difficult childhood, which might have included bullying in his schooling days, has made him great with children. She further remarked, “So he’s gone from facing as a kid to turning and being that way, which is why he’s great with kids because I think he sees himself in the kids to not bully children or be so good with kids. He’s amazing with kids.”
Stubbs may not be far away from the truth, as Kyrgios has struggled with mental health issues back in 2019. He once opened up about “suicidal thoughts” in the Netflix docuseries, ‘Break Point’.
Nick Kyrgios on his struggle with pressure and mental health that ended at a psychiatric hospital
Things are not easy when you are at the center of attention. There is a lot of pressure to make things happen, to bring the title home. These expectations proved to be fatal for the Aussie tennis star back in 2019 when he contemplated suicide after suffering defeat at the hands of Rafael Nadal at the Wimbledon Championships 2019. “I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to commit suicide.” He opened up about the same during the docuseries.
He said, “I was drinking, abusing drugs, I hated the kind of person I was I lost at Wimbledon. I woke up and my dad was sitting on the bed, full-blown crying. I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to commit suicide.” Fortunately, the tennis star tracked his steps to the psychiatric hospital in London. Before coming back in 2022, to play the finals against Djokovic.
Though Kyrgios may have turned around things for himself, the player also needs to turn things around for his words on X and commentary. As Stubbs has said, “life would be easier for him,” if Kyrgios thinks things through before putting it out for the world.
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