‘Enjoy your flight home’: Kyrgios’ brutal send off to Open fight drama

Combining with great mate Thanasi Kokkinakis in the Australian Open doubles draw, the pair — more renowned for their singles games — have been one of the stories of the summer, attracting massive crowds and knocking out two seeded pairs.

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Earlier in the week, the “Special Ks” bounced the top seeded pair and Olympic gold medallists Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic out of the Open.

Wild scenes follow the Aussies with packed houses, calls of “Siu” at almost every point and general rowdy behaviour. But the drama took an explosive turn when Kyrgios revealed on Saturday members of Pavic and Mektic’s entourage threatened to fight him after their shock upset.

But Kokkinakis and Kyrgios have had the final word after being quizzed following their 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over 15th seeds Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar on Sunday.

“Mate, it was pretty funny, I’m not going to lie,” Kokkinakis said. “Me and Nick, trying to be professionals, so we went in the gym after our doubles match, maybe one of the first times ever.

“I’m going to be honest, it was Pavic’s fitness trainer and he came up and he smashed a foam roller against a pole as hard as he can and I thought he was kind of joking, I wasn’t sure if he was about to berate his players.

“And he came up to Nick and said we’re being disrespectful and we … Nick hit the opponent with a ball, but that’s normal, these doubles players have got unbelievable hands so you have to go at them.

“And they said we were showboating, but I’m sure if we played away in Croatia it would have been the same thing.

“So it was just our energy and I think at the end of the day they were a bit salty they lost, because they’ve won their fair share of tournaments, so I don’t know, I thought they would handle losing a little better than that.

“But at the end of the day we’re just trying to entertain the crowd, we didn’t mean anything disrespectful, we’re trying to get ourselves and our energy up. It was all aggressive on his part though for sure.”

To summarise, Kyrgios added with a laugh: “Enjoy your flight home.”

Kyrgios added the pair had taken the doubles format to a “new level”.

“We are bringing the game to new levels. Not just on a doubles court,” he said.

“I saw the TV ratings – they’re up 45 per cent, mate. Let’s just be honest. People come to see him play, because he’s exciting. This is what we need. We need it for the sport.”

Kokkinakis added that they’re entertaining, and while “he’s a bit more showboat than I am”, they work together well.

“It feels like a Davis Cup atmosphere every time we play,” he said. “We’ve got more people watching sometimes than guys going deep in singles and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”

Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley told Nine earlier in the day that it was “not unusual” for tempers to boil over when there is so much “passion”.

“There was a lot of passion and a lot of energy in the stadium and I think that carried over beyond the stadium,” Tiley said of the fight threat incident. “I have spoken to Nick and the team and this is not unusual.

“It’s not uncommon … when you have a situation like this and players are beaten and they are expected to win the match and there’s so much passion from the fans.”

Tiley’s response stunned Weekend Today presenter Charles Croucher. “Don’t doubt the passion, but are you saying it’s not unusual that a coach would threaten a player after a match?” Croucher asked.

Tiley clarified his position, adding: “No. We’ll look closely at that, we’ll continue to look closely at that. As I said I’ve spoken to Nick and Thanasi.

“What’s not unusual and what’s not uncommon is the passion, but certainly there are rules and there’s conditions around how you respond at the end of the match.”

Originally published as ‘Enjoy your flight home’: Kyrgios’ brutal send off to Open fight drama