Kokkinakis believes close friend Kyrgios is 'no saint' but also receives unfair criticism: "There's a lot of pressure on him, he feels like he's trying to do as well as he can"

Thanasi Kokkinakis thinks that close friend Nick Kyrgios receives too much criticism while also accepting that he is not a person without flaws.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis grew up together playing tennis and they are still best mates to this day. They teamed up to win the Australian Open doubles titles last year and Kokkinakis talked about his friend. He feels that some of his criticisms are too harsh because people put a reputation for it on him:

"I think sort of some of the stuff [Nick Kyrgios] does that maybe people see as negative gets thrown in the spotlight a little bit more than others because of maybe he's had a reputation for it. A few things, if other players did it, wouldn't be as sort of focused on as when Nick does it."

He also added:

"[Nick Kyrgios] is no saint at the same time. He's done a couple things that are probably warranted. I think some of the stuff is unfair. At the end of the day he's just finding a way to try and do as well as he can."

And also:

"There's a lot of pressure on him. He feels like he's trying to do as well as he can. Sometimes he copes with it. Everyone copes with stuff in different ways. He had a phenomenal year last year. He's going to continue to give it his all."