Nick Kyrgios has been accused of doing his doubles partner
Thanasi Kokkinakis "dirty" with his stories of their party habits at the 2022
Australian Open.
The two Australian players soared to victory at their home Grand Slam in Melbourne almost two years ago, defeating top seeds Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić in the second round before going all the way to the final, where they downed fellow Australian team Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell to win the title.
Kyrgios went on to make the Wimbledon final that year in singles, but has been absent for most of the 2023 season due to injury, having to withdraw from the Australian Open in January and only playing once since then. However, the 28-year-old is present at the ATP Finals this week, where he is providing commentary for Tennis Channel.
Kyrgios spills the beans on doubles partner's partying
While providing coverage of the season-ending championship, Kyrgios provided an insight into he and Kokkinakis' time off-court ahead of their major win: "He (Kokkinakis) was having a good time," Kyrgios joked while speaking on Tennis Channel, "I was doing ice baths in the morning, getting up at 7 a.m. doing, like, chipped returns in doubles and I'm like, 'What am I doing here?'"
“I was the only person at Melbourne Park practising and he was just rolling in from a night out. People would think it would be the reverse. People would be like, 'Kyrgios is the one that's going out.'" This earned a hilarious response from Kokkinakis, who wrote "Mans [Kyrgios] doin' me dirty here."
Kyrgios also reflected on the origins of their doubles partnership and how they formed a winning team: "I think we won one match there prior in, like, five years. We had the worst concentration, we couldn't play together, it was just a train wreck.
"He sent me a Whatsapp, said: 'Do you want to play?' and I was like: 'Yeah, whatever, let's play,' and then we ended up winning the title. It was one of the most out-of-the-blue things ever, and to do it with him, I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else," he explained.