Nick Kyrgios: Andy Murray deserved to retire from tennis 'a little bit more gracefully'

Nick Kyrgios says he hopes to retire from his tennis career “a little more gracefully” than Andy Murray did.

Three-time Grand Slam winner Murray retired from his playing career after reaching the last eight of the Olympic men’s doubles in Paris alongside partner Dan Evans in August.

Murray, 37, won two Wimbledon titles, one US Open title, two Olympics singles titles and helped Great Britain to Davis Cup glory in 2015 in an illustrious career. However, the later years of his career were hit by injury and in January 2019 he feared an immediate exit from the sport after needing hip resurfacing surgery.

Australian Kyrgios has also battled injury in his career. The 29-year-old has no plans to retire yet but has said that he hopes his exit will not come as a result of injury, just as for Murray and for Rafael Nadal, who will retire in November.

Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, 2022 Australian Open men’s doubles champion Kyrgios said: “I look at how Andy Murray's doing it now, and how Rafael is going out, I don't want to be like that either, I don't want to be kind of crawling to the finish line in a sense.

“What Andy Murray's achieved in this sport is second to basically no one...unless you are Novak [Djokovic], [Roger] Federer, or Nadal. The next person is Andy Murray.

“It's like you've achieved everything. You deserve to go out, I think, a little bit more gracefully than he has done. I think that the surgeries, the pain, it's just not worth it, in my opinion.”

Kyrgios also opened up on a difficult period in 2019 battling mental health.

“That was a bad period”, he recalled. “I was just struggling with being who I was. It was hard at that time and I didn't feel like I could take a step back from the sport and kind of work on myself and get myself in the right headspace.

“I was just playing and playing and playing and kind of dealing with everything. And it was a dark time. Like I was drinking and I was spiralling out of control, and I was continuing to play and travel.

“[I would have] 20 or 30 drinks [a night]. Easy. I'd drink like a fish. Anything, vodka, anything. But then just wake up and play Nadal the next day, give him a good run for his money.

“It was horrible. I mean, I almost like kind of enjoyed feeling that way, and that's when I knew I had to get out of it.”

Kyrgios was asked whether he feels more positive about his life now. He replied: “I fight it most days. I don't wake up feeling amazing.

“I feel like I know my steps to get me out of my bad thinking now. Before, I didn't have any resistance. I don't want to do that now.”