Following his triumphant victory over world No.1 Daniil Medvedev at the Canadian Open, Nick Kyrgios has opened up about the challenge of being away from home amid his family’s health challenges.

Kyrgios’ win on Thursday, August 11 marks the second time the Australian tennis star has claimed victory over a reigning world No.1 in a come-behind victory that took less than two hours, with an impressive 6-7(2) 6-4 6-2 win over Medvedev.

Thursday’s match was also Kyrgios’ eighth straight match win and 14th victory in his past 15 matches, his one defeat came from Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon finals.

Following the win, Kyrgios claimed he “had a very clean objective” of how he was going to approach the match.

“I’ve had some success against him in the past and he’s beaten me before so I feel like we know each others’ games well,” Kyrgios said.

“I’m not the type of player who goes into these matches looking at rankings or anything like that.

“It’s just who I’m playing and what kind of ball they’re giving me and today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play– a lot of serve and volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back – and I executed better than he did on the day.”

Despite his focus during competition, off the court Kyrgios’ mind is back home with his mother and father who are both currently unwell.

“It’s hard because even travelling now, my mum is in hospital at the moment, my dad hasn’t been very well, my brother just had a baby and I don’t get to be there with my family when normal people would like to be with them,” Kyrgios said.

“It’s hard being from Australia because we can’t travel back and forth. There’s a lot of things people don’t see. They only see me winning, losing, throwing a racquet, doing those things. They don’t really understand the challenges that I face or what people on tour face, what’s going on in their personal lives.”

Following his victory over Medvedev, Kyrgios paid a heartwarming tribute to his mother, writing “be strong, Ma” on a camera lense.

Despite his challenges, Kyrgios has shown no signs of slowing down after taking out victory against fellow Australian Alex de Minaur on Friday, August 12, securing his spot in the quarter-finals at the Canadian Masters.

Kyrgios secured a 6-2 6-3 victory in a little over an hour, later admitting the win was bittersweet given it was at the expense of a “good friend”.

“Today was really hard mentally for me to go out here and play Alex. We’re such good friends,” he said.

“He’s been having such a good career so far and carrying the Australian flag for so long. It was just tough mentally. It’s never easy to play a friend like that, especially if they’re Australian.”

Kyrgios will now go on to face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals.