Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios will be teaming up for the first time as a doubles unit at the Brisbane International.
Novak Djokovic & Nick Kyrgios Team Up At Brisbane International
The Australian and Serbian tennis stars will combine forces in Brisbane, after Kyrgios handed a lot of praise to Djokovic for playing a part in his return from injury.
The Queensland tournament takes place on December 29th and the duo will compete in the doubles tournament after turning their rivalry into friendship.
This competition is set to act as preparation for January’s Australian Open, with Djokovic being one of the favourites to win the competition on UK betting sites.
Kygrios confirmed this doubles action on his Instagram, posting a photo of the two tennis stars together at Wimbledon 2022 with the caption – ‘Doubles at Brisbane. See y’all there.’
The Serbian spoke about playing in a doubles tournament with Kyrgios, pleading the Australian to return from injury at the Australian Open this year.
Djokovic said: “You’ve got to promise me something … recover quick, come back to the tour before I retire and we’ve got to play doubles.”
The controversial tennis player has appeared in a singular ATP match since the 2022 US Open, after dealing with wrist and knee surgeries.
Kyrgios revealed that Djokovic motivated him to deal with the injuries after debating the prospect of retirement in 2023.
He said: “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.
“That was a big drive for me … so, if he 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.”
