With his eyes fastened on a breakthrough singles slam on residence soil, Nick Kyrgios is ready to let his Australian Open doubles title defence with Thanasi Kokkinakis fall by the wayside if wanted.
The Australian duo have registered to defend their title, claimed after a rollicking marketing campaign that reinvigorated doubles’ profile at Melbourne Park final January.
But Kyrgios is now a real singles contender, who can be coming off a restricted preparation, whereas Kokkinakis is on the up after overcoming his horror damage run.
It means doubles is now an afterthought for the charismatic pair.
“Definitely I think from both parties. If he’s going deep as well, which he’s more than capable of doing I think that we’re gonna have to,” Kyrgios advised reporters on Thursday.
“We’re singles players at heart and the doubles grand slam last year was just a flash in the pan, how we were able to do that.
“We have not had one dialog about doubles but, about like how we will method it or something.
“We’re just going to go in it, have some fun. If we play, we play. If we don’t, we don’t.”
Kyrgios’ lead-in has been restricted by left knee and ankle accidents.
The 27-year-old was an Eleventh-hour scratching from Australia’s United Cup staff and in addition withdrew from the Adelaide International 2 occasion however is assured his physique can maintain up for not less than his singles marketing campaign.
“My knee’s feeling good. My ankle’s feeling good. My body’s feeling honestly pretty good,” he stated.
“I don’t think anyone’s feeling 100 per cent.
“Obviously with a few folks pulling out already and a few folks doubtful, it is regular round this time of the yr for everybody to be battling with some accidents, however that is all good.”
Kyrgios’ mental health struggles were again laid bare in the new Netflix ‘Break Point’ series.
He hoped the behind-the-scenes series would give an insight into just how gruelling the tour is mentally and physically, citing world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz’s injury-enforced withdrawal from the Australian Open.
“The rigours of the tennis tour – you have acquired our No.1 participant on the earth cannot even play as a result of he is injured as a result of how gruelling the schedule is,” he stated.
“Hopefully this documentary for everybody concerned in tennis is large.”
Meanwhile, Kyrgios has joined the possession group of the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
