The high-profile pairing of Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios has made a winning start at the Brisbane International after coming through a hard-fought match.
The duo ousted Alexander Erler and Andreas Mies 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-8, in just under two hours to mark Kyrgios’ return to competitive tennis following a lengthy absence due to injury. He is playing in his first ATP event since June 2023.
After facing off against each other in the final at Wimbledon less than two years ago, Djokovic and Kyrgios spurred each other on and spoke highly about each other after the match ended.
“Australia has always had an amazing crowd, an amazing culture for tennis, so any city that you come, packed stadium. So, thank you guys for the love and support,” Djokovic said to the Brisbane crowd.
“And, as far as that match, I want to thank Nick for playing. He said the other day that it should be a pleasure to play with him. It is, it is a pleasure, and I’m glad to share the court with him for his comeback.”
Between them, they won 48 out of 53 first service points played without facing a single break point against Erler and Mies. An impressive performance for two players who had never played a doubles Tour-level match together before.
As for Kyrgios, he is just relishing his time on the court following his spell on the sidelines and admits his future in the sport is still uncertain.
“This injury’s been brutal for me, so I wasn’t taking any of this for granted,” he said.
“I don’t know how many Aussie summers I’ve got left, so I was just looking around and loving the energy and just so happy to be back out here, and we promised that we were going to do this one time before either he goes or I go, so I’m glad we’re still alive.”
They are due to play their next match on Wednesday which will be against top seeds Nikola Mektic and Michael Venus.
Meanwhile, in the singles draw Djokovic will start his campaign against Rinky Hijikata and Kyrgios is scheduled to play France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
