© Getty Images Sport – Mike Hewitt
Nick Kyrgios was delighted to stumble upon a video of him ripping a historic monster second serve against Rafael Nadal at 2019 Wimbledon.
In the 2019 Wimbledon second round, Kyrgios was 2-5 down in the first set and serving to stay in the opener. After firing a big first serve that landed just out, Kyrgios also went for a bomb on his second service. This one landed in and the board showed that it was a 143 mph (230.1 km/h) serve.
By delivering that serve, Kyrgios set a record for the fastest second serve at the Grand Slam level. When it comes to the fastest second serve in tennis history, Reilly Opelka holds that record with his 144.8 mph (233km/h) serve he delivered at the 2021 Rome Masters.
“Biggest second serve in history baby,” Kyrgios captioned his Instagram Story.
Kyrgios ended up in a psychiatric ward just before the Nadal match
When Kyrgios and Nadal met in 2019, the Australian put up a big fight before the Spaniard escaped with a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (3) win.
In early 2022, Kyrgios publicly opened up about the darkest period of his life in 2019. Last year, Kyrgios revealed more details about that period, revealing that he was admitted to a psychiatric ward just before his 2019 Wimbledon match against Nadal.
“It was just self-inflicted pain. And I had friends around me telling me it wasn’t healthy and I ignored them,” Kyrgios said On Purpose with Jay Shetty in December.
“And then I found myself going to a psychiatric ward in London and I had to play Nadal the next day. And these are the things like. Everyone would assume that I was doing fine. I was answering questions and they told me that I should stay in this psychiatric ward for two weeks and be reassessed. And I was playing Nadal the next day.”
After deciding to play the match against Nadal, Kyrgios figured out that wearing arm sleeves would help him cover up his wounds from self-harm.
“I had to wear an arm sleeve on the center court of Wimbledon and no one knew any of these problems. And it was, it was hard. And I look back and I just don’t know how I like got out of it to be honest, I was such a mess,” Kyrgios added.
Three years later in 2022, Kyrgios returned to Wimbledon and made his first Grand Slam final before losing to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
