{"id":252086,"date":"2026-01-22T17:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/252086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T17:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:29:10","slug":"special-ks-burn-brightly-but-briefly-as-kokkinakis-and-kyrgios-exit-doubles-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/252086\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Ks burn brightly but briefly as Kokkinakis and Kyrgios exit doubles | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the end, it was a one-night only affair. The return of the Special Ks \u2013 Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis \u2013 to the Australian Open<\/a> saw the former champions go down 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10-4) to fellow Australians Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans. Bruised and wounded from injuries, the pair looked set for victory when they led by a break in the third but by the end, there was more wincing and more limping on show than winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to play another match feeling like that ever again,\u201d Kokkinakis said. \u201cI will take a serious break. The crowd was incredible. It was exciting, unfortunately probably they saw shadows of our former selves.\u201d Kyrgios was more annoyed about what he saw as inconsistent rules regarding video replays. \u201cHow can you review a ball that\u2019s been hit over the net, but you can\u2019t review a serve over the net?\u201d he said, referring to decisions early in the deciding tiebreak. \u201cDoesn\u2019t make any fucking sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5,000-strong crowd inside the Kia Arena got their money\u2019s worth, though. There was an underarm serve, a racket throw, plenty of swearing, numerous interactions with the fans and a stirring comeback from Kyrgios and Kokkinakis, only for Kubler and Polmans to rip up the script as they hit back to pinch victory.<\/p>\n

Both Kyrgios and Kokkinakis had been unable to play singles thanks to their respective, well-documented injury problems. With Kokkinakis needing treatment on his shoulder and Kyrgios telling his partner he had already taken a painkiller, they did well to finish the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired,\u201d Kyrgios admitted. \u201cMy goal in the last couple of months was to play all these tournaments, get through some doubles. I\u2019ve got mixed tomorrow and then I\u2019ll re-evaluate what my schedule looks like. That\u2019s it. I\u2019ve ticked all my boxes, all my goals the last month-and-a-half. I\u2019ve done everything I thought I could do. I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Kyrgios conducting the fans and chatting non-stop, the first set was pure theatre. Originally scheduled to start \u201cnot before 4pm\u201d, the match eventually began at 9pm thanks to the efforts of Stan Wawrinka, who extended his last Australian Open with a four-hour, 33-minute victory in his second-round singles match. The extra drinking time for the fans had the desired effect.<\/p>\n

Thanasi Kokkinakis (left) and Nick Kyrgios were within two points of victory before slipping to defeat. Photograph: William West\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The umpire Marijana Veljovic had her hands full throughout, at one stage warning Kyrgios for an audible obscenity and at another, laughing behind her hand as the former Wimbledon runner-up said: \u201cI don\u2019t want Waterdrop, I don\u2019t get paid to drink Waterdrop. Pay me.\u201d On another occasion she instructed the crowd: \u201cOK guys, you\u2019re amazing, for real. Now we\u2019re ready for play.\u201d On another, she said: \u201cLadies and gentlemen, players are playing for you, please respect them and please stay quiet during play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering their lack of recent match play Kyrgios and Kokkinakis played well, especially once the initial rust was blown away. The Kyrgios serve was as effective as ever, even if he was the only man who was broken in the opener \u2013 not helped by an underarm serve that was duly punished by Kubler. The fact Kyrgios had even practised the unusual move in his warm-up might have alerted Kubler to the possibility.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios began to find his range at the start of the second set, showing nice touch at the net, while Kokkinakis started to hit his returns more sharply. Kubler, a former doubles champion here himself, was the most solid player on court but, under pressure at the end of the set, he was broken and the scores were level.<\/p>\n

The teams shake hands at the end of the match. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

The momentum was with Kyrgios and Kokkinakis going into the third. The crowd continued to chant \u201cAussie, Aussie, Aussie\u201d but it was clear who most of them wanted to win. And when they broke for a 3-1 lead, after the best rally of the match, ending with a lob winner from Kyrgios, it looked like they would go on to victory.<\/p>\n

At 4-1, though, Kokkinakis needed the physio for shoulder pain. Kyrgios was broken two games later and Polmans saved a break point to level at 4-4. Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were two points from victory at 6-5, deuce in the third, but Polmans again hit himself out of trouble.<\/p>\n

The deciding tiebreak began with a let that Kyrgios and Kokkinakis said could not have been one and then, when they thought they had levelled for 2-2, a video review was requested by their opponents, the replay showing Kokkinakis had hit his volley before it crossed the net. From that point on it was all Kubler and Polmans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the end, it was a one-night only affair. The return of the Special Ks \u2013 Nick Kyrgios…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-252086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}