‘If I win, I win and if I lose, I lose… Life is good,’ Nick Kyrgios opens up about newly found ‘attitude’ towards life after meeting girlfriend Costeen Hatzi


‘If I win, I win and if I lose, I lose… Life is good,’ Nick Kyrgios opens up about newly found ‘attitude’ towards life after meeting girlfriend Costeen Hatzi

Nick Kyrgios with his girlfriend Costeen Hatzi

Nick Kyrgios is a professional tennis player from Australia. He has built up a reputation for blowing off steam on the court and stirring controversy with his comments and antics, and for other infamous things, but he is also one of tennis’s raw talents, as he has demonstrated time and time again. The 26-year-old has climbed as high as 13th in the ATP men’s singles rankings. He’s won six ATP titles and played in nine ATP finals, making him one of tennis’ most feared adversaries.

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Strong winds blew past tennis players this week, making them quiver and dread the cold, but an ecstatic Kyrgios was indifferent about the wind gusts that troubled his peers throughout Thursday’s tournament schedule, nor about his impending opponent, a determined Argentine named Sebastian Baez. The Australian, who entertained guests at a Citibank-sponsored tennis dinner previous to the tournament with a funny cookery display, stepped up the intensity again on Thursday, overcoming Baez in straight sets.

“I’m just excited to be back at this tournament. It has been a couple years because of the (COVID-19) pandemic and taking time off to get my mind and body right,” Kyrgios told reporters after the win. “My body feels as good as it has ever felt. I feel like I’m moving and playing really well. It’s good to be back.”

In a recent Instagram post, the Australian opened up about his personal battles with mental illness and addressed the darker periods in his past, which he has recently overcome. He has now reappeared, claiming to be in a much happier and calmer state of mind. He’s also rid of the left knee pain he’d been suffering from for the past year and a half, and he’s in a terrific emotional place.

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“I’m a completely different person” Nick Kyrgios addresses his struggle

nick kyrgios
nick kyrgios

He smiled and nodded to Hatzi, who was sitting in the front row of the press conference when asked what accounted for his altered outlook. “I was really struggling. I wasn’t happy,” he said. “The tennis world wanted me to be a certain player, and I was trying to be something that I wasn’t for so many years. It put me in a dark place. I was letting people down, I fell out with my family. It was tough,” he added.

“One day I looked in the mirror and said that this isn’t the type of person that I’m trying to be. And now I’m a completely different person. I’m comfortable in my own skin, I’m not trying to please anyone. I’m not trying to be anyone else. I’m Nick Kyrgios and I just go out there and play and have fun and if I win, I win and if I lose, I lose. Life is good,” the Aussie said.

When asked how he and boyhood friend Thanasi Kokkinakis feted their Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open in January, the 26-year-old claimed they went their separate ways. “He stayed in Melbourne for three days, and I took the first flight out with my girlfriend and we went back to Sydney. I’ve come of age, man,” he said with a grin.

Kyrgios, who was granted a wild card entry into Indian Wells, is next up against 32nd-seeded Argentine Federico Delbonis in the second round on Saturday.

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