By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, December 16, 2024
Buckle up Brisbane: Grand Slam King Novak Djokovic will partner Nick Kyrgios in a blockbuster doubles team to start the season.
Photo credit: Graham Denholm/Getty
Brisbane will host royal reawakening next month.
Grand Slam King Novak Djokovic will partner Chaos King Nick Kyrgios in a blockbuster Brisbane doubles partnership of the 2022 Wimbledon champion and finalist.
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The 29-year-old Kyrgios announced the dream team doubles pairing with Djokovic in an Instagram post captured by journalist Jose Morgado here.
The 2018 Brisbane champion Kyrgios has been sidelined for the past year-and-half due to surgery and injury. Kyrgios accepted a wild card into Brisbane where he will launch his comeback in singles and doubles comeback.
The Brisbane International is set for December 29-January 5th.
Though Kyrgios and Djokovic were once fierce rivals they have developed a friendship since that showdown in the 2022 Wimbledon final where Djokovic rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) victory. Djokovic has appeared as a guest on Kyrgios’ popular podcast Good Trouble. Additionally, Djokovic’s new coach, Andy Murray, and Kyrgios are long-time buddies.
In an interview with AAP last month, Kyrgios credited Djokovic’s encouragement with convincing him to comeback.
“I started getting some real improvement at the nine-month mark ... to a point where I feel like I’m playing how I was in 2022,” Kyrgios told AAP.
“I was hitting with Novak and when he said to me, ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve had surgery.’ And that was a big motivation to say like maybe I’m actually making some inroads and some progress into getting back because I didn’t really know.”
Ten-time Australian Open champion Djokovic, who will arrive in Australia aiming to win his 100th career championship, planted a seed of positive thinking in Kyrgios’ head during their practice.
“That was a big drive for me,” Kyrgios told AAP. “If Novak didn’t say that, I don’t know if I would have been motivated and if I would have kept pushing on the thought, but that was definitely a big part of the journey when he said that to me.”
The 2022 Australian Open doubles champion alongside good friend Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kyrgios said his immediate goal is to stay healthy.
If he can sustain health, Kyrgios said his primary mission remains the same: Win a Grand Slam.
“I am coming back because something is keeping me around the game,” Kyrgios said. “I have beaten pretty much every person that has been put in front of me, made a final of a Grand Slam, won a doubles title in a Grand Slam, won multiple titles and made money.
“But I think the one thing that is now on my target is a Grand Slam. I think that will be the only thing that will shut people up at the end of the day.”