Thanasi Kokkinakis reveals Nick Kyrgios couldn’t celebrate their Australian Open doubles victory and that is something that still bothers him to this day.
On 29th January, 2022, the Australian pair lifted their maiden Grand Slam title in doubles after beating Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell 7-5 6-4 in the final.
Afterward, Kyrgios alerted the Melbourne crowd that his good friend was planning to go out for a celebration and cheekily added: “So ladies, let’s go.”
For context, Kokkinakis was single at the time.
But that night, the two close friends – who have known each other since childhood and signed up for the Australian Open doubles because they wanted some fun – didn’t go out together to celebrate.
“I remember a fun night afterwards that he (Nick) wasn’t a part of because he took an early flight the next morning which I’m still p—– off with him about! So I had to do it for the both of us,” the 28-year-old told Express-Sport.
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios© YouTube screenshot
Kokkinakis: Me and Kyrgios partied later
While the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up didn’t go out with his friend on the night of their Slam triumph, they still had some fun later on.
“It’s weird because it got really delayed. I was trying to convince him because I was like, ‘We’ve celebrated nothing many times so the one time we actually had a reason to celebrate, we didn’t do it.’ But we’ve had a few nights,” the world No. 77 added.
Because Kyrgios was injured, they didn’t get to defend their Australian Open title in 2023 and they also didn’t compete in Melbourne earlier this year.
But now that the 29-year-old has returned to being fully healthy and that he is set to return at the start of 2025, he and Kokkinakis have confirmed that they will return to the Australian Open as a pair in January.
Tennis World USA