No one anticipated that Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios would have to wait another nine years to face each other in a tour-level match after they faced off in the Australian Open junior final in 2013.
The Australian pair have a strong doubles connection and are close friends. This season, they won the Australian Open title in January and the title in Atlanta but never faced each other on opposite sides in the pros.
When Kokkinakis and Kyrgios learned they would be playing each other, they were both in the middle of a practice session. They were naturally sad to learn that only one of them would be moving on to the second round of the season's final Grand Slam.
“I was definitely surprised and then a little disappointed for sure. We wanted each other to do well and go on a run. We were talking to each other and Nick was saying like, it's annoying that this is a first round because we could have played hopefully later if we had the right draw and could have made a good run, but it is what it is." said Kokkinakis adding that it will be fun regardless:
“It's going to be fun. It'll be interesting out there; he just said, let's have some fun and play some good tennis, and yeah, it'll be interesting. I think the atmosphere will be good. It's a weird dynamic. We haven't played each other since the juniors and that was weird as well. So now it's going to be probably a packed house, I don’t know, it's going to be strange.”
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