Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has revealed how his "sexual frustration" impacted his on-court performance early into his tennis career.
Kyrgios is often on the road for months at a time travelling around the world to play in tournaments, leaving him away from his girlfriend, family and friends.
Speaking onhis podcast No Boundaries, Kyrgios made an X-rated revelation as to exactly how being apart from his partner can cause a downturn in his game.
"With my first girlfriend, I was away from her for six months at a time," Kyrgios said.
"When you're trying to perform at the highest level, you start missing someone like emotionally, physically and it becomes a sexual frustration.
Not being with his family also took a significant toll on the Canberra native.
"My relationship with my family wasn't great a few years ago because I was always away and didn't have my family around me," Kyrgios said.
"I was winning, losing, going through relationship problems, dealing with other problems and I was pushing them away because you feel like the world's against you.
"I pushed everyone who was close to me away and I fell out with people and that's something I'd never want again."
Since the pandemic began, many tournaments require players to enter quarantine bubbles in order to minimise the risk of Covid-19.
Kyrgios said the mental game of tennis was "ridiculous". Photo / Getty Images
It is an element of the sporting world Kyrgios knows he would have struggled with, and pulled out of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2020 because he didn't want to be in a bubble.
The tennis star had some choice words for those in the AFL who kicked up a fuss about being in a similar situation.
"You have AFL guys complaining that they have to do a one-month bubble in Australia, and I'm like dude, I'm going seven months a year abroad in a new place every week and I'm like what the f***," Kyrgios said.
"That's why tennis is so hard, in my opinion. The mental game is ridiculous.
