He knew then he needed professional help.<\/p>\n
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n The fallen Australian tennis<\/a> star turned to Oscar Piastri\u2019s esteemed mindset coach and credits Emma Murray for helping him find contentment again. To a point.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy,\u201d Popyrin said in a raw interview ahead of his first-round Open date with former semi-finalist turned 2026 qualifier Grigor Dimitrov.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of that is what was eating at me, thinking about things, searching for that feeling of being at the career-high rankings, of playing at that level, and it becomes a kind of an unhealthy obsession.<\/p>\n \u201cIt becomes a really negative and bad balance between you and tennis and it\u2019s what was really not helping me and it was the main culprit in what has been happening over the last few months.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to change that and I needed to change just the whole way I look at tennis as a whole, and it\u2019s still a work in progress and it\u2019s not going to be a quick fix over one or two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Popyrin took his first mental-health break after Wimbledon last year before needing another reset following a straight-sets first-round loss at the All England Club six weeks ago to Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Wimbledon, I was a wreck,\u201d said the former French Open junior champion.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to \u2014 well, I still do \u2014 every time I lose, I think I don\u2019t deserve to have fun. After, I think I don\u2019t deserve to be happy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was worried that I wouldn\u2019t enjoy my wedding because of my tennis, and when I had that thought for the first time I was like, \u2018OK, something is really, really wrong and I\u2019ve really got to take some time and figure things out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The 27-year-old one-time world No.19 has been working with Murray for only a short time, but already the high-performance emotional regulator is making progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to not associate my results with how I feel as a person,\u201d Popyrin said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to look at it in a way that it\u2019s just a journey that I\u2019m on. Where I am is where I am and what I have to do is just continue trusting the process that I\u2019m on.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve stuck with the same team and I haven\u2019t changed anything. I believe in the guys. I believe in myself. I believe that everything is just mental for me.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if I\u2019m able to make those changes up in my head, then I\u2019m able to not only get to where I am, but I believe I can go further.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got to kind of start from scratch, which is never easy. It\u2019s something I have done before, but it\u2019s even harder for me to do that because of where I have been and what I have done and what I have achieved.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s important for me if I want to continue playing tennis that I get through this, and the way I get through this is continuing on the trajectory that I have been the last month.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Australia\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ca659b2000cda8c1df827f87def89c9ca65a1f16.jpg\")
Australia\u2019s Alexei Popyrin has required a wildcard to get into this year\u2019s US Open. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n