It’s a more mature Nick Kyrgios in the doubles arena. But it’s no coincidence, of course. He can thank good mate Thanasi Kokkinakis for what it’s revealed to all tennis fans.
Nick Kyrgios is infamously regarded as the wild child on the court. The biggest brat on tour since the ‘Super Brat’ himself, John McEnroe.
Kyrgios isn’t afraid to openly challenge the umpire and sometimes even the spectators get caught in the crossfires… even if they know exactly what they signed up for. His unpredictable behaviour generally always ensures the arena is full of eager onlookers.
But since he’s joined forces with Thanasi Kokkinakis, something profound, or magic, has surfaced. It culminated to them incredibly winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title, eating into the some of the attention Ash Barty’s singles run got (something she probably appreciated, admittedly).
For Nick Kyrgios, playing with Kokkinakis seems to bring out the best in him – tennis and behaviour. The dynamic duo play high-octane, entertaining tennis. While they ultimately win together, they also laugh together, smile together. They jump, they chest-bump, and they smile. It looks like a whole lot of fun out there.
Only hours after one of his trademark wild temper tantrums, Kyrgios calmed down, re-focused and teamed up with his good friend Kokkinakis to defeat the number three seeds in straight sets at the Miami Open and progress to the semi-finals.
The love and admiration the ‘Special K’s’ have for one another is obvious and both were full of praise for each other after their recent Aussie Open doubles victory.
“I have won some big titles around the world, played some amazing matches, this one ranks one for me,” Kyrgios said.
“To be a Grand Slam champion with my boy, we have known each other since we were eight, nine years old, done some serious things together, have had some serious experiences, but this is incredible. We didn’t expect this at all,” Kokkinakis added.
The popularity of the ‘dream team’ is growing around the world with even the WWE giving the pair custom ‘Special K’ belts ahead of WrestleMania.
Embed from Getty ImagesAt the Miami Open, one of the biggest events outside of a Grand Slam, ‘The Special K’s’ have been on a dream run and recorded an upset win over Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers 7-5, 6-2 and will now face wildcard duo John Isner and Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-finals.
The victory continued an extraordinary year on the doubles circuit for the dynamic duo with their win-loss record for 2022 currently at 9-1.
The day did not start well for Kyrgios as he suffered a major melt down in his loss to world number 11, Italian Jannik Sinner in the fourth round of the Miami Open.
Kyrgios clashed with umpire Carlos Bernardes as his walkie talkie went off and said he ‘should be fired on the spot’ and wanted a ‘new set of referees, these guys don’t know how to do s***’.
In the end, Kyrgios lost his cool and was docked a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, followed by a game penalty and then ultimately he lost the match.
But that’s not the Nick we’ve seen, when he’s on court with the mate that has a calming effect on him.
Kyrgios showed during covid he has standards and some moral compass. He completely schooled Novak Djokovic in the art of showing compassion and displaying some common sense that many of the ‘sheltered’ tennis stars lack.
And his unique mateship with Kokkinakis is finally allowing some of that off-court maturity to translate. How far that takes Kyrgios, more time will tell.
