The Australian tennis star, Nick Kyrgios often gets himself in the centre stage of either serious drama or comical instances and less frequently for his innate tennis talent. She has established himself to be a ‘Wild Thing’ and has become a ‘Box Office’ of entertainment on and off-court.
Recently, Alastair Campbell from Men’s Health connected with the Aussie to have a conversation about mental strength. Nick opens up about his family, depression, self-harm, patience, and racism. This dialogue definitely gives a different perspective on someone who has been viewed as brute and aggressive. His mature articulation about these issues shows tennis fans the ‘Wild Thing’s’ true colours.
Nick Kyrgios speaks out on racism in Australia
About this same time last year, Kyrgios shared his story on how he felt about the racial slurs from the audience. The Stuttgart Open 2022 left Kyrgios fuming as he had to listen to the crowd scream unacceptable racial slurs during his game against Andy Murray.
Soon after that, he claims that the crowd at the Wimbledon 2022 was pretty “rowdy” and left the court tense even after defeating Paul Jubb.
“So pure disrespect from a spectator to an athlete is acceptable at Wimbledon? But you don’t accept a hat with two logos? When’s the line? That’s acceptable, racism is acceptable so when does it stop? So where’s the line?” he asks the umpire during the game.
In the recent interview with Men’s Health, he speaks out about the racism in his home country, Australia. “I have dealt with bad racism. Australia is a pretty racist country in general, one of the most racist countries in the world,” he explains further.
Being born in Australia to a mother of Malaysian descent and a father of Greek descent was not easy for him. He also talks about how being an overweight kid playing tennis at 13 years of age, he faced a lot of bullying. Australia and its racism in sports has been addressed several times in history but Kyrgios thinks it is still the same as how it used to be.
Nick Kyrgios’ racist confrontation with Aussie sporting icon
Delving deeper into how he handles it, Nick says, “I have grown some thick skin in sport and in life, so I deal with it better than I did. But it’s never easy.” The most disappointing statement he made was about how other sports icons in Australia had made racist comments directly at this tennis professional.
“Some of the most iconic people in sport in Australia have told me and my family to go back where we came from and this kind of bullshit. Stuff that isn’t acceptable, not acceptable at all.”
Kyrgios has explicitly expressed his anger against racism several times. Kyrgios speaks that he has learnt to deal with it more maturely and it looks like this is an issue that he will always passionately fight against. This conversation with the controversial tennis player helped him understand that racism still exists in the sports world today.
What are your thoughts on Nick as a tennis player? Let us know in the comments below.
