Thanasi Kokkinakis drops bombshell about his chances of defending Australian Open men’s doubles title with Nick Kyrgios
- Thanasi Kokkinakis doubts he and Nick Kyrgios can defend doubles title
- Aussie says he’s trying to build his singles career and not focusing on doubles
- Kokkinakis says he’d ‘be lying’ if he thought Speciak Ks could repeat 2022 win
Aussie tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis says he’d ‘be lying’ if he thought that he and good mate Nick Kyrgios were a chance of defending their Australian Open men’s doubles title this year.
Kokkinakis fell short over the weekend after blowing nine break-point opportunities in the final set of his semi-final defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut at the Adelaide International.
Aussie tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis (pictured at the Adelaide International) says he’d ‘be lying’ if he thought that he and good mate Nick Kyrgios were a chance of defending their Australian Open men’s doubles title this year
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios lift the Australian Open trophy last year
The upside of bowing out for the 26-year-old is that he will now have more time to prepare for his Australian Open first-round singles clash with Italian Fabio Fognini.
Kokkinakis, currently ranked No.110 in the world, goes into the event in terrific form with recent wins over No.6 Andrey Rublev and No.28 Miomir Kecmanovic, but will be relishing an extra day’s rest.
‘Hopefully I can use those days to an advantage,’ he said.
‘It’s hard playing every day … I’ve had some battles against good players.
‘I’ll use [those] days wisely, get used to the conditions in Melbourne and give it a red-hot crack there.
Kokkinakis, currently ranked No. 110, goes into the event in terrific form with recent wins over No. 6 Andrey Rublev and No.28 Miomir Kecmanovic, but will be relishing an extra day’s rest
‘Coming from [Adelaide] to the Aussie Open last time, [the courts] were a lot slower, so it took a bit to get used to conditions, but now I’ve got a couple days, so hopefully I can acclimatise and play some good ball.’
Kokkinakis will also be looking to continue his winning ways when he reunites with Kyrgios, who he won the Australian Open men’s doubles title with in 2022. But he doesn’t give the Special Ks much of a chance.
‘We’ll play, but if I told you I think we’re going to defend the title I’d be lying,’ Kokkinakis said.
Kokkinakis will also be looking to continue his winning ways when he reunites with Nick Kyrgios, who he won the Australian Open doubles title with in 2022. But he doesn’t give the Special Ks much of a chance
‘We only thought about winning it [last year], to be honest, pretty much in the quarters onwards when we were both out of singles.
‘We’re going to try and do as well as we can in singles, doubles is a bonus, hopefully our bodies hold up.
‘I wasn’t coming into this year thinking I’ve got to defend my doubles title.
‘I wasn’t expecting to achieve much in doubles, I don’t feel like I need to do anything more in doubles, I want to build my singles career.’
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