Nick Kyrgios Biography

Nick Kyrgios was born Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios, on April 27, 1995, in Canberra, Australia, to George and Norlaila "Nill" Kyrgios. While his father was of Greek descent, his mother had Malay roots.

Kyrgios’s mother was born into the Selangor royal family of Malaysia but gave up her title of “princess” after moving to Australia in her 20s. She later worked as a computer engineer, while Kyrgios’s father worked as a house painter.

Kyrgios grew up with 2 older siblings, his brother Christos and his sister Halimah. While Christos grew up to be a lawyer, Halimah became an actor. Halimah has performed in dance and musical theater and been an acting and voice coach in Hong Kong.

Kyrgios attended Radford College until 8th standard. In 2012, he completed his Year 12 certificate at Canberra’s Daramalan College.

In his early teens, he mostly played basketball. However, at 14, he decided to switch his focus to tennis. At 16, he went to the Australian Institute of Sport on a full scholarship and played tennis there too.

Known for his aggressive style of playing since his younger days, Nick Kyrgios won the ITF junior tournament at age 15. In 2013, Kyrgios turned professional and moved his training base from Canberra to Melbourne Park.

In 2014, Tennis ACT announced a huge investment into the redevelopment of Canberra’s Lyneham Tennis Centre. In January 2015, Kyrgios confirmed he would return to Canberra. He donated $10,000 to the Lyneham Tennis Centre, too.

In his breakthrough “wildcard” match at Wimbledon in 2014, Kyrgios (ranked 144), at age 19, defeated Spanish player and then-world number 1 Rafael Nadal in 4 sets. Kyrgios thus created history by becoming the first male tennis player ranked outside the top 100, since 1992, to defeat a world number 1 at a Grand Slam.

In Feb 2016, Kyrgios bagged his first ATP World Tour title by defeating fourth seed Croatian player Marin Cilic in the Marseille Open (Open 13 Provence). At the 2016 BB&T Atlanta Open, he defeated 3-time defending champion, US player John Isner, in straight sets. He thus scripted history as the first non-American winner in the history of the tournament.

The same year, Kyrgios won the Japan Open title, defeating Belgian player David Goffin in 3 sets. Kyrgios thus won his first ATP 500 level title. In January 2018, Kyrgios defeated US player Ryan Harrison to win the Brisbane International tennis tournament.

In March 2019, he won the Mexican Open held in Acapulco, by beating then-world number 3 German player Alexander Zverev in a straight-sets final. The same year, Kyrgios won the Citi Open Championship in Washington, DC, by beating Russian player Daniil Medvedev.

In June 2022, he withdrew from the doubles category of Wimbledon 2022, where he was supposed to play alongside partner Thanasi Kokkinakis. Kyrgios stated he wished to focus on his singles wins.

In July that year, during his third-round match in Wimbledon 2022, against Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kyrgios ended up being fined $4,000 for his unsportsmanlike conduct, in-spite of winning the match.

During the round-of-16 match that year at Wimbledon, against US player Brandon Nakashima, Kyrgios broke Wimbledon’s all-white dress code and went dressed in red trainers and a red cap on the court instead. Kyrgios ended up winning the match.

In his semi-final match, against Rafael Nadal, at Wimbledon 2022, Kyrgios got a walkover. Nadal had to eventually withdraw from the tournament due to an abdominal muscle tear.

Kyrgios’s Wimbledon final in 2022 was his first. However, he ended up losing the match and the title to Serbian tennis legend Novak Djokovic.

The same year, Kyrgios teamed up with Thanasi Kokkinakis and won the Australian Open doubles title. Kyrgios withdrew from the 2022 US Open due to a knee injury.

At 19, after Nick Kyrgios beat then-world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the 4th round of Wimbledon, on a wildcard entry, he was buried under immense pressure to perform. He later stated on Instagram that he was suffering from depression in 2018. He apparently also had suicidal thoughts and had engaged in self-harm.

Even in 2019, he was struggling with depression, despite winning tournaments. Following this, he sought the help of multiple psychologists.

He has also been in the news for behavioral issues and has been accused of tanking in multiple matches, most notably at the Shanghai Masters in 2016. ATP not just fined him during the match, but also suspended him for his unsportsmanlike conduct.

He has also engaged in verbal abuse multiple times on the court. For instance, in a 2015 Rogers Cup match, Kyrgios told his opponent Stan Wawrinka “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend…,” and was criticized by the entire tennis fraternity, including iconic player Roger Federer. Kyrgios was similarly charged for tanking in a 2015 Wimbledon match against French player Richard Gasquet

From 2015 to 2017, Nick Kyrgios dated Ajla Tomljanović. Tomljanović is a Croatian-Australian professional tennis player, and the duo even played as partners in the Australian Open mixed doubles matches in 2015 and 2016.

In 2020, he briefly dated Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya. Their 2-month relationship ended in a bitter break-up in March 2020.

Following his break-up from Kalinskaya, he dated fellow Australian Chiara Passari. They had an on-again, off-again relationship, in which both made cheating accusations against each other. They finally broke up in late 2021, when a heated argument between the two had to be stopped by the police at Adelaide’s Playford Hotel, where the two were quarantined after coming back from a vacation.

Passari later filed a case against him, and he was charged with common assault. Nevertheless, the charges against him were later discarded.

Since December 2021, he has been in a relationship with Australian blogger, interior designer, and social media influencer Costeen Hatzi. In May 2022, the two got engaged.

Kyrgios, a Greek Orthodox Christian, is known for his signature gold cross that he wears with 3 pendants, including one resembling a tennis raquet. He has turned vegan since 2020.

Apart from tennis, he follows basketball and football. He is an avid fan of the NBA team Boston Celtics. He also supports the Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur and the Australian Football League team North Melbourne Football Club.

In January 2023, Nick Kyrgios became a co-owner of the National Basketball League (NBL) team South East Melbourne Phoenix. He has also launched the NK Foundation, along with his mother, Norlaila, and his brother, Christos. The foundation aims to offer underprivileged children shelter and a place to practice sports.