Kokkinakis ready for Wimbledon reunion with Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios is on the mend and looking forward to returning to action at Wimbledon, according to his big mate and doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis.

The pair have also been discussing the prospect of their ‘Special Ks’ doubles team rejoining forces for the world’s biggest tournament with singles finalist Kyrgios feeling “positive” about returning for the grass-court season after a long break.

Kokkinakis, who’s been a pal of Australia’s most enigmatic sportsman since boyhood, offered AAP an encouraging lowdown on the plans of Kyrgios, who has not played a tour match since the Japan Open seven months ago and underwent knee surgery after missing January’s Australian Open.    

On the comeback trail, he’s now also bypassed the French Open, where, despite not being the greatest fan of the clay-court slog, he had promised to take his girlfriend Costeen Hatzi because she’d wanted to see Paris for the first time.

“I’m sure she’ll get to experience a few nice Paris trips in the future,” said Kokkinakis, who had a conversation with his mate about his plans on Thursday.

“I think the plan for him is to be ready for Wimbledon and play a few lead-ins. Stuttgart (June 12-18) was up there, I think. I’m not sure if he’s going to Queen’s or Halle (both June 19-25), but hopefully he’s ready. 

“By all accounts, his recovery has been a bit slower than he thought, but I think he’s on the mend now and it’s looking positive for the grass.”

Of their partnership that delivered the Australian Open doubles title last year, Kokkinakis added: “The plan right now is to play Wimbledon, obviously health permitting. 

“We’re going to sign in to the doubles there – we actually spoke about that on Thursday. 

“We haven’t played for a long time, and I haven’t played much doubles at all this year as it isn’t as much a priority for me this year, but I still want to play in some of the bigger tournaments because it’s still a fun experience with him. 

“I’m playing here in Paris with (big-hitting German Jan-Lennard) Struff here – so we’ll see how that goes.

“If Nick wasn’t ready for Wimbledon, I’d have played with him again at Wimbledon, but Nick’s always up there as my choice of doubles partner.

“Nick and I get on really well, it’s more than just having good results for us, we enjoy our time on the courts together – and it was a friendship first and that’s why we play doubles in the first place.”