Australia’s
Nick Kyrgios has come out in defence of his
doubles partner
Thanasi Kokkinakis after recent comments from former doubles
world number one
Todd Woodbridge. The 53-year-old, who is often regarded as one of the greatest doubles players in the history of tennis, has recently criticised the performances of Kokkinakis, who, according to him, has not lived up to his talent.
Woodbridge also questioned why Kokkinakis decided to play in exhibition events, which, according to him, does not let him
prepare well for the big events. "Scheduling is a really interesting thing
with him," said Woodbridge while talking at the Wide World of Sports' The
Morning Serve. "At the back end of the year he's played Challengers and
then he went and played exhibition matches that he didn't need to do. Yes, the
money's great and we all love putting that in our pocket and that's exactly
what he did, but that schedule hurts to start the year."
Those comments did not go down well with Kokkinankis, who responded to them during a press talk where he stated that he is just trying to ‘make a living’. “That’s why he is trying to host every game show under the
sun," said Kokkinankis while responding to Woodbridge ahead of his
second-round contest against Britian’s Jack Draper during the
Australian Open. "We’re
trying to make a living as much as he is."
Kyrgios, who will be the partner of Kokkinankis in the doubles
category in the Australian Open 2025, backed his partner and stated that they
are doing something wrong. The former world number 13, who suffered a defeat in
the first round of the first Grand Slam of the year, stated that ‘older heads’ are
jealous of the younger players who are earning much more than what they earned
during their career.
"Facts. We out here earning 6-7 figures at these
[exhibition matches] – we have every right to go and get that money," wrote
Kyrgios in a post while sharing the comments. “The game is much more physical
now than when some of these older heads played. 'Don't be jealous we are
earning bread. They would have done the same thing … thing is they were not
getting six figures to show up for a couple days.”