Washington (Archyde.com)
Kyrgios ended his three-year title drought by dominating Yoshihito Nishioka in the Washington Open final, and the Australian admitted his transformation was stunning last year.
Kyrgios hit 12 aces in a 6-4, 6-3 victory over his Japanese opponent to win his seventh singles title in his career, and the first since winning the same tournament in 2019 on hard courts.
Kyrgios showed no signs of fatigue after reaching his first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon last month and breaking his opponent in the first two sets.
He broke Nishioka again to win the match after gaining more than 75 percent of his service points.
Kyrgios revealed new levels of play in 2022 after years of battling his mental problems.
He admitted earlier this year that he was suffering from suicidal thoughts and described the period surrounding the 2019 Australian Open as “one of the darkest periods of his life”.
He was not confident that he would continue his professional tennis, but he has shown great consistency this season.
“Reviewing where I was a year ago and seeing where I am now, it’s an amazing transformation,” added Kyrgios, who climbed to 37th in the world rankings.
He continued, “Many people helped me reach this position, I showed strength and seriousness to continue and persevere and overcome all these periods to continue to perform well and win titles like this.”
Kyrgios has not dropped serve in Washington and has won 11 in his last 12 matches, losing only the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic.
Earlier in the tournament, he saved five match points to defeat American Francis Tiafoe and reach the semi-finals.