Tonight’s Australian Open Match: A Little K Special to Boost the Fans

Since the start of the Australian Open, the scent of the Davis Cup has been floating in the air as local duo Kyrgio-Kokkinakis hit the courts. The two Australians are there to set the mood, rock their opponents and light a fire with the support of the masses who feel free to lend support, loud if possible, sometimes in an unsportsmanlike way, their favourite. What succeeded in removing the fifteenth seed in the round of 16, especially the first consisting of Croatians Pavic and Miktic, the Olympic champion, in the previous round.

A meeting that ended in the locker room as explained by Tanasi Kokinakis: “I’ll be honest, it was Pavic’s physical coach who approached us very aggressively. He approached Nick and said we were disrespectful. They said we were showing off, but I’m sure if we played away in Croatia it would have been like that. I thought they would handle the defeat well. A little better than that.”

In the end it all ended well even if Nick Kyrgios added a small layer on Twitter wishing their opponent a good return to Europe. The next night, the two troublemakers will battle for a place in the semi-finals, which should not change their approach to meeting with the desire to make an offer.

“Sometimes we lose points due to lack of focus but here I have a different feelingFollow Nick Kyrgios. Honestly, I feel like we are the favorites in the doubles tournament. We have already released two seeds. Thansi is playing at a fantastic level.”

The Australian reveal of the start of the current season indicates the advantage of crowd support: “I think our focus is the biggest teams this year compared to other seasons. It was tough last year, there were about seven people in the stands with Covid-19. This year, having that collective support, you see how helpful it is, it feels like a festive atmosphere. And I think when we’re having fun, it allows us to focus better.”

And despite the competition from the men’s and women’s singles matches taking place at the same time as the quarter-finals, Nick Kyrgios is convinced that tennis fans will watch his match on TV: “I’ve seen our TV viewership numbers, it’s up 45% when we play. Sometimes it’s more people watching us than the stars playing singles.”

German Puetz and New Zealander Venus were warned. They will have to stuff their opponents and also a hostile audience tonight, as Miktik summed it up well after his elimination: “There is a dirty pair in this tournament that you have to defeat and unfortunately we failed.”

So much for Australians.