The mother of Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios has described how Andy Murray helped save her son's life in his time of need. The world number 40’s mum Nill, is unable to travel to watch him play due to health reasons.
She also struggles to watch his matches on television as witnessing her son compete at the highest level in pressurised situations is incredibly stressful for her. Off the court, the 27-year-old has opened up on his battle with mental health and self harming and British star Murry played his part in helping Kyrgios through the tough times. Nill spoke to Australian media outlet Nine News about her experience trying to help her son battle his demons and how the two-time Wimbledon champion spotted the warning signs.
"It's been a tough, tough journey, just dealing with criticism and just trying to protect him but I can't really protect him," she said. “The self-harming ... I saw that and people told me that. I asked him about it and he didn’t want to talk about it at that time.
"John [Morris, former manager] spoke to me that Andy is worried about Nick because he can see some evidence of self-harm. And I blame others for that. For just pressuring him, criticising him. Even people we thought might be supporting him. That period was very hard. I just wanted to be next to him constantly so that I could see him… And if I can’t see him I worry about him so much that it becomes very difficult.”
Following his quarter-final victory over Christian Garin, Kyrgios commented on his mother’s health. “Obviously my mum's health has been a bit rocky," he said. "It's been pretty bad for a while now. Obviously she's not able to kind of come to these -- she's not allowed to travel that much. Even Australian Open, she won't come to my matches because she's got, like, a pacemaker and stuff, it's too stressful, and all that type of stuff.
"Yeah, I mean, I try and talk to her. She'll wake up in the morning, say, I just saw the live scores. It looks like you had a tough match. I'm just like, You have no idea. Obviously. I'm just glad she's able to kind of keep an eye on me from home. Obviously it would be amazing for her to be here. But she's obviously dealing with a lot of things. She has to make sure my dogs are fed at home as well. My brother just had a kid five days ago, George. It's been a pretty eventful couple days for Mr. Kyrgios. So, yeah, hopefully mum is watching this and she's proud."
Kyrgios gave it his all in his first grand slam final, but the experience and greatness of Novak Djokovic shone through as he recovered from a set down to win 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-3) on centre court. "I look back at it and I'm just like 'How am I here?' Like, where I'm from, everything I've been through," he said. "You know, it's pretty cool. I'm just not supposed to be here."
"It's taken me 10 years, almost 10 years in my career to finally get to the point of playing for a Grand Slam and coming up short," the former world junior number one said. "I feel like if I had won that Grand Slam, I think I would have lacked a bit of motivation, to be honest. Coming back for other tournaments, I would have really struggled. I kind of achieved the greatest pinnacle of what you can achieve in tennis."
