'Life was spiralling out of control': Nick Kyrgios opens up in Netflix series ahead of Australian Open

The 27-year-old Canberran is the subject of the first episode in Netflix's tennis documentary series titled Break Point, set to be shown on these shores on January 13, days out from the Australian Open where Kyrgios is hoping to make a mercurial run.

The opening instalment in the five-part series follows Kyrgios during last year's Australian Open and highlights the mental demons the divisive star has battled for the majority of his career since bursting onto the world stage as a 19 year old.

An emotional Kyrgios is shown in conversation with close friend and manager, Daniel Horsfall, and girlfriend Costeen Hatzi, opening up on the struggles of his life on tour and the change he was forced to make to turn his life around.

"The first four or five years of my career was just so chaotic," Kyrgios says.

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"When Horse [Horsfall] was on tour with me, when it was basically just him looking after me, he could just see my wellbeing just declining every week. My life was spiralling out of control - drinking every single night. I was like, 'I can't keep doing this. I have to be kinder to myself'.

"For my mental health, I could never be one of those players again that plays all year round. I couldn't do that. I value my family, my close, close friends and Cossie too much to put tennis in front of that any more. I don't think that's healthy.

"I don't really have expectations now in my matches any more. I just want to go out there, have fun, take the pressure off, and then we can try and live a more normal life. It's much better like this, that's for sure."

Kyrgios has so often been a whipping boy for critics with countless on-court blow-ups picked apart and shown on highlight reels, while in 2015 he and Bernard Tomic were told by Australian swimming champion Dawn Fraser to "go back to where their fathers or their parents came from".

Horsfall says Kyrgios was so often painted as tennis' villain, when "every article, every tabloid, every person just wanted to have their two cents and tell him what a shit bloke he was".

But there is a shift in the public perception of Kyrgios, whose journey to last year's Wimbledon final will be shown in a later instalment of the Netflix series, as he prepares to challenge for the Australian Open crown in Melbourne.

"In the heat of the battle, I'm two different people," Kyrgios says during the documentary.

"Sometimes I do cross the line. That's just my passion, that's just my emotion. Millions of people watching you and you're not playing your best. Would you not be frustrated and angry? I have to let it out, out there."

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