More than a decade ago, I was covering the US Open in New York when an American TV crew told me they were doing a special on the next generation of tennis. The upstart disruptors who would shake up the sport as the big four of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray inevitably declined. They couldn’t go on forever, after all.
The yanks wanted to hear about Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis. These Australians with Greek surnames had enormous personality and even bigger game. Nick had knocked over Rafa at Wimbledon, and Thanasi’s ranking was soaring. According to the Tennis Channel, success was inevitable.
Spin forward to this week and Kokkinakis enjoyed an emotive win in Adelaide before his shoulder, again, gave out. His pec is currently attached to his shoulder via the achilles tendon of a dead man. He might have burst onto the scene as edgy, but it’s a different kind of radical that is needed just to get him near a tennis court. There will be no singles Australian Open campaign.
Nick’s biggest on court win in the last twelve months was overcoming Aryna Sabalenka in a confected battle of the sexes exhibition. Similarly, his body won’t do what is needed to compete with the best in the world. No wild card, no AO.
And so, they hope to play doubles.
When they won the AO doubles crown in 2022 there was a moment during their run to the final, where the on court interviewer asked them how they were managing to knock over specialist pairings, given their lack of experience, ‘this isn’t easy’ the host said.
Kyrgios smirked at his partner, whose face broke into a wide smile. ‘I mean… it kinda is pretty easy’ Nick guffawed, chuckling along with the crowd.
At that time, there was still a sense of chapters to be written on the singles front. There was a sense that doubles was somewhat beneath them.
When things get taken from you in life, it can bring into sharp focus the joy of everything you do have. And joy was the word that kept coming up in the interviews Nick and Thanasi gave during their two-match doubles campaign at the Brisbane International.
It feels as though doubles with an old friend in front of a warm crowd is all that might be left for the pair of one-time young punks who were considered the sport’s Next Big Things. There’s something quite cool about that. Stripping back all the hype and celebrity, the best feeling these two have is just getting on court and having a crack. Dreams of winning a slam, being the best on earth, achieving greatness. The clout, the status, the adulation. It’s all slipping away. Shadows of these things remain, but most of all, the main thing that remains is joy.
