Kokkinakis sheds light on Croatian coach who wanted to fight Kyrgios - "He said we were being disrespectful"

After a Croatian fitness trainer offered to fight Nick Kyrgios in the locker room following his team's loss in the doubles event at the Australian Open, Thanasi Kokkinakis has opened up about what led to the incident.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis defeated the Croatian team of Mate Pavic and Nikola Metkic in the second round of the doubles event at Melbourne Park, and it was reported that the Croatian fitness trainer wanted to fight the Kyrgios in the locker room after the match.

Kokkinakis finally revealed more about the situation, stating “he (the trainer) came up and smashed a foam roller against a pole as hard as he can. I wasn’t sure if he was kind of joking … I wasn’t sure if he was about to berate his players.

"He came up to Nick and said we were being disrespectful. Nick hit the opponent with a ball, but that’s normal. Doubles players have got unbelievable hands, so you have to go at them.

“They said we were showboating, but I’m sure if we played away in Croatia it would’ve been the same thing. It was just our energy and I think at the end of the day they were a bit salty they lost."

Kokkinakis claimed he was unsure of why the Croatian team took the situation so seriously, adding that he and Kyrgios meant no disrespect towards any of them.

“They’ve won their fair share of tournaments so I thought they’d handle losing a little better than that," said Kokkinakis. "At the end of the day, we’re just trying to entertain the crowd. We didn’t mean anything disrespectful, we’re trying to get ourselves and our energy up. It was a little aggressive on his part though, for sure.”

For his part, Kyrgios seemed unperturbed by the incident, jokingly wishing the Croatians a pleasant flight back home.