Special K's reunion ends in retirement as injured Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis bow out at Australian Open

Winning the Australian Open in 2022, the childhood friends Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis had a dream run at Melbourne Park but it ended in disaster on their return on Thursday.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis had to pull out due to a shoulder injury in particular for the latter. He had a real battle with Jack Draper yesterday which the Brit prevailed in and the Aussie ace was bleak about his own future putting doubt on the match even happening.

But it did as they faced another Aussie duo in Vukic and Duckworth but had to retire at 2-3 down in the second set after losing the first 7-5 with Kokkinakis struggling to serve. It was injuries for both as Kyrgios continued to be troubled by an abdominal injury with time outs taken during the contest.

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It is not the return either wanted with both seemingly now injured and their future unknown. Kokkinakis in particular admitted that he isn't sure how much sand is left in the sand timer if he has to miss any period of the season.

"I feel like I'm letting him (Kyrgios) down, I'm letting people down but yeah, I don't know," Kokkinakis said on Wednesday night after his war with Jack Draper.

"I won't be able to lift my arm tomorrow. So we'll see.

"Unless we're both playing with underarm serves, it's looking pretty unlikely."

"I knew after (the Open) I had some serious decisions to make, and I'm going to miss some time," he said. "I just tried to kind of empty the tank for this week and see what I can do.

"I've tried to sort it out for years manually, without surgery, just trying to do what I can. It's the reason why I can't back up big matches.

"My whole body is fine. It's just the same injury that I worked so hard on to try to get right."

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