Wildcard entrants Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis won the Australian Open men’s doubles title on Saturday. They defeated another Aussie duo, Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell, to get their names on the board.
"Nick, I love you brother."
The bromance is well and truly alive with these two 💙🏆@TKokkinakis • @NickKyrgios • #AO2022 • #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Et0SJZjzPM
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2022
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Kyrgios and Kokkinakis have been friends since before they were professionals on the tour and have played together before as well. They won the Wimbledon boys title back in 2013. This is their first major title together. This is also the first time an all Aussie pair won at Melbourne Park since 1997 when Woodies- Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge grabbed the title.
Nick Kyrgios asks Kokkinakis to ‘party up’
In a fun interaction, just after their match ended, Kokkinakis tagged Kyrgios in a tweet and projecting his excitement said that he wasn’t going to sleep for 3 days. To this, Kyrgios said that he instead would spend time with his “beautiful girlfriend” and asked Kokkinakis to party up!
I’ll be having beautiful dinners with my beautiful girlfriend 👑 party up my brother https://t.co/OgG1vbtDLX
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) January 29, 2022
The duo, known for their on-court antics, garnered massive support from the crown and were fan-favourites for the title. On their path to the finals, Kyrgios had fought with the umpire in almost every match, smashed a few racquets and displayed their natural camaraderie on the court. However, they looked like they meant only business in the 1 hour 35 minutes of play, utilising their skills to see their fellow compatriots off.
Title win is a dream come true for Kyrgios
The pair who won the match 7-5, 6-4, later expressed how much they appreciated playing with each other at the Australian Open 2022.
“Nick I love you brother, I can honestly say we didn’t expect to come close to this,” Kokkinakis said during the presentation ceremony. This win is all the more special for Kokkinakis, who is coming off of an injury-laden few years.
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“I said to my team after, ‘whatever happens, if I snap my knee tomorrow – this was after Adelaide – I’m happy… I’ve won a title. Coming from kind of where I felt was the lowest low to come and win a title in my hometown was incredible. It’s just a big weight off my shoulders,” Kokkinakis said.
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Kyrgios also reiterated how good it was to play with Kokkinakis. He mentioned how this win was a dream come true.
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