\u201cA lot of people do ACLs and Achilles ruptures, which are brutal, terrible injuries. But with those, a lot of people have had them, so you know who to speak to and what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one, I\u2019m kind of gauging how we go \u2026 to be on the court, especially with Nick, was a special feeling. It\u2019s been a very rocky road this [past] year, and I\u2019m trying to take it one day at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never really teared up from a doubles match\u201d<\/p>\n
A torrent of water has gone under the bridge since Kyrgios, now 30, beat Kokkinakis, 29, in the 2013 Australian Open boys\u2019 final, and they are far closer to the end of their careers than the start. They guffawed as they barely believed their age while saying it out loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like my tennis journey has been so interesting, and anytime I\u2019m able to add a little match like this to, I guess, the resume, or just get out there and play, it\u2019s special,\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really know what my plan is this year or what my future holds, either. I\u2019m literally taking it day by day. When me and Thanasi play doubles together, we remember that this sport can be pretty fun, and it\u2019s not always just injuries and competing and grinding.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery good thing that\u2019s come in my life has come from this sport [but] it\u2019s gone in a flash. I feel like we look at that 2013 [boys\u2019 final], and it\u2019s like, \u2018That didn\u2019t feel that long ago\u2019. Now, I\u2019m 30.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios has scaled greater heights \u2013 headlined by making the 2022 Wimbledon final among four grand slam runs to at least the quarter-finals \u2013 and been more controversial and polarising.<\/p>\n
The former world No.13 has toppled all of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, which he is immensely proud of, while Kokkinakis famously upset Federer in Miami eight years ago.<\/p>\n
But they have both been cruelled by injury.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis has more often shown vulnerability in public about his unfortunate fate, as he did on Sunday night, but Kyrgios has increasingly peeled back his combative exterior to admit how tough he found having tennis repeatedly ripped away from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t speak for Nick, but it\u2019s memories like this, playing in front of crowds and seeing the joy that it gives people [that drives me to keep coming back],\u201d Kokkinakis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love when we\u2019re healthy, and being able to actually just play tennis and only worry about that. It\u2019s a fun feeling, and we\u2019ve done it our whole lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to do everything I can. I don\u2019t want to go five years and be like, \u2018I wish I gave it a little bit more of a crack\u2019, or \u2018I could have done something else a little bit\u2019. While we\u2019re somewhat able to keep going, I think we will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA lot of people do ACLs and Achilles ruptures, which are brutal, terrible injuries. But with those, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-391750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}