Nick Kyrgios smacks down Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray move in retirement revelation

Nick Kyrgios has revealed he plans to bow out of tennis on his own terms as he vowed to not play on for too long like Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray. The 29-year-old Aussie made the remarks on the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, where he revealed he wants to retire "more gracefully" than the tennis greats.

Kyrgios, who has had his own injury problems, said he currently has no plans to step away from the sport, but when he does call time on his career hopes it will be with his body in good working order. "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," Kyrgios said on The Louis Theroux podcast.

"What Andy Murray's achieved in this sport is second to basically no one ... unless you are Novak (Djokovic), (Roger) Federer, or Nadal, like, 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's done. I think that the surgeries, the pain, it's just not worth it, in my opinion."

It comes as Kyrgios is expected to line up in his home grand slam in January. The Aussie, who has had to navigate wrist and knee injuries over the past two years, hasn't played at Melbourne Park since 2022 but Australian Open organisers expect him to feature.

The 29-year-old has had just one tour singles match since October 2022 but has returned to training in recent months. And Tennis Australia's Craig Tilley says he has been in contact with Kyrgios and is confident he will take the court in January. "He's out there practising, playing, been in touch with his team over the last couple of days, and he's fully expecting to play, and we expect to see Nick on the court playing. The confidence that we get about Nick playing is that in his preparation, we know he's doing more than he's done before," Tilley said earlier this month.

"We know that he wants to do it. We know that he's mentally preparing to get ready to play in January... So we fully expect to see him."

Nick Kyrgios lifts the lid on mental health struggles

Also in the interview with Theroux, which touched on a range of topics from moon landings to the construction of the pyramids, Kyrgios spoke about how he used alcohol to deal with his mental demons. The 29-year-old revealed he would have "20 or 30 drinks" a night as he battled with his mental health, and was "spiralling out of control" during a particularly dark spell of his life.

Recounting events in 2019, Kyrgios said: "That was a bad period, yeah. "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.

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"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.

"20 or 30 drinks (in a night). Easy. I'd drink like a fish. Anything, vodka, anything. Yeah, 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."

When asked if he felt in a better place now, Kyrgios said: "I fight it most days. Like, I don't wake up feeling amazing. I feel like I know my steps to get me out of my bad thinking now. Like, before, I didn't have any resistance. I don't want to do that now."

with AAP