Australian Open - 'He's just thrown me under the bus!' - Kyrgios embarrasses Kokkinakis with comment

ByDan Quarrell

Updated 13/02/2021 at 09:40 GMT

Thanasi Kokkinakis suffered a case of having a very red face in his post-match press conference with doubles partner Nick Kyrgios after a throwaway line about their on-court chat left him to say that, "He's just thrown me under the bus!" The Australian duo are playing doubles together at Melbourne Park.

Nick Kyrgios 'threw his doubles partner under the bus', embarrassing Thanasi Kokkinakis in their post-match press conference with a cheeky comment.

The Australian duo breezed through their opening-round match against Julian Knowle and Lloyd Harris in straight sets, 6-2 6-4, to reach the second round.

When conversation in their press conference after the match moved to tactics and communication around the court, Kyrgios seized on the opportunity to embarrass his partner.

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"I don't know, there was actually a bit of talk out there today, tactical wise," Kyrgios said, in response to Kokkinakis suggesting there was, "One per cent tactical" communication between them.

Well I'm a taken man, so he was talking to me about girls most of the time!

'He's just thrown me under the bus!' - Kyrgios embarrasses Kokkinakis with 'girls' comment

"What?!" Kokkinakis hit back.

He's just thrown me under the bus right here!

"But that's not true," he continued, his face suddenly bright red.

"We were just having fun. It was definitely more just rubbish."

There was drama in the match before it even began when Kyrgios and Kokkinakis received a time violation for being too slow to leave their chairs.

'Good job!' - Kyrgios and Kokkinakis get warning BEFORE match

"But we were waiting for you to say, 'Time'," argued Kyrgios.

"So you can't just give us a warning? You can just say, 'Are you guys ready?', or? Nah, you're doing a good job! Very good."

Then to close out the match, Kyrgios fired a huge ace outwide before hammering another ball out of the stadium in delight.

'Too good' - Kyrgios wins doubles match with ace, fires ball out of stadium

Next up for Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will be a second-round clash with fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Wesley Koolhof.

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