Nicole Gibbs opens up about depression, motivation and life outside of the court

"For all of the trolling we get on social media, I find it fascinating how positive and supportive people are when you talk about mental health issues."

 Nicole Gibbs comes on the TENNIS.com Podcast this week with Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi. Gibbs, a former Stanford multiple NCAA champion, has been ranked as high as No. 68 in the world and has reached the third round of two Grand Slams. Last week, she won the $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit event in Rancho Santa Fe, marking her seventh career ITF title.

 With Indian Wells just around the corner, the American is excited to get back to the site of her best result, which was the round of 16 in 2016 as a qualifier (01:23).

 The 25-year-old shares what keep her motivated, especially when tournaments don’t go her way and when her ranking dips (03:14). She talks about the importance of work ethic and how she recently changed her perspective of what her game style should look like (09:05). She also dives into why she connected so strongly to Andre Agassi’s book Open (11:32).

 Gibbs tells us about her Behind the Racquet post about her battle with depression, and stresses the importance of managing your mental health (18:20). She has got a huge platform on social media and isn’t afraid to use it, yet even she was surprised by the support she has gotten after opening up (27:54).

 While tennis is the focus of her season, Gibbs also has a huge personal milestone coming up in 2019. She’s getting married to her longtime boyfriend Jack Brody in November. He proposed with one of the most well-thought-out videos of all time and she reveals her expectations for the wedding (30:13).

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