Sydney – Australian media reported on Tuesday that tennis player Nick Kyrgios will seek to have an assault case against him dismissed on mental health grounds.
Kyrgios’s attorney represented him at a hearing in the Australian Capital Territory magistrates court, where he was charged with common assault.
The 27-year-old Australian player is in Tokyo to compete in the Japan Open. He was not obligated to appear for the administrative hearing.
His attorney, Michael Kukulies-Smith, reportedly requested a postponement so that a mental health evaluation could be conducted, as reported by the ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald.
They claimed that Kukulies-Smith stated that his client’s mental health difficulties were well-known and that he will seek dismissal of the allegation at a later date.
The Wimbledon finalist said he battled depression in an Instagram post from earlier this year in which he discussed his previous mental health difficulties.
“I felt like I couldn’t communicate or trust anyone,” he wrote with a 2019 photo of himself.
There have been times when it appeared like those good, energizing sentiments would never become a reality.
‘Do my job’
The number 20 player in the world is competing in his first competition since falling in the quarterfinals of the US Open a month ago.
Earlier on Monday, he stated that he had been working on the case “for months” and was taking it “day by day.”
Kyrgios, one of the most divisive figures in tennis, told reporters in Tokyo, “There is only so much I can control, and I’m taking all the steps and dealing with that off the court.”
“I can only do what I can, and I’m here in Tokyo just trying to play some good tennis, maintain my momentum, and do my job, which is to play tennis well. That is all.”
He is a clear favorite to win his first-round match against the 87th-ranked Tseng Chun-hsin of Taiwan.
In 2014, at the age of 19, Kyrgios rose to prominence at Wimbledon by defeating Rafael Nadal en route to the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Kyrgios has enjoyed a string of solid results in recent events, despite his inability to realize his early promise in subsequent years.
In January 2022, he and Thanasi Kokkinakis won the Australian Open men’s doubles title before losing the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic in July.
AFP