Special Ks: What’s next for the Nick Kyrgios-Thanasi Kokkinakis doubles pairing

With the French Open just around the corner, the big question is, where and when will we next see the Nick Kyrgios-Thanasi Kokkinakis doubles show?

The Special Ks took the Australian Open by storm. Picture: Getty Images

The Special Ks are not the Bryan Brothers and won’t attempt to claim back-to-back doubles slams at Roland Garros this year – but a shortcut entry to the ATP Finals alongside the world’s best players would be too good to refuse.

Nick Kyrgios – who often thinks about making a shock retirement long before cashing in on his glittering potential – ranked the Australian Open doubles crown at the top of his turbulent career.

“We are going to grow old and always (say), ‘Remember that time we rolled off the couch and just won Oz Open?’” the 26-year-old said.

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The Special Ks took the Australian Open by storm. Picture: Getty Images

Thanasi Kokkinakis declared their pulsating push to glory would leave the polarising pair with targets on their back as the most hunted, and perhaps the most hated, partners on the circuit.

The Special Ks became the first duo to pair a junior grand slam with a senior slam since American legends Bob and Mike Bryan, who won the boys doubles at the 1996 US open before peeling off 16 men’s slams among 119 doubles titles.

While Kyrgios and Kokkinakis have copied their famous chest-bump celebration after each victory, that’s where comparisons should cease.

“We aren’t the Bryan Brothers,” Kokkinakis said.

“What they did is incredible, I don’t think that’s us. (But) it goes to show when we play together and we are locked in, anything is possible.”

The King and the Kokk aren’t the first doubles pairing to break out the chest bump celebration. Picture: Getty Images

The legendary Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, made the chest bump their own.

Kyrgios hasn’t bothered with the French Open in five years and doesn’t want to play best of five sets doubles matches at Wimbledon where he is a singles threat, having reached the quarter-finals as a teenager in 2014.

That means their next grand slam act will likely be this year’s US Open, along with a possible shock appearance at the ATP Finals in Turn should their status as reigning Australian Open kings seal their qualification.

“I mean, we’re not going to turn ATP Finals down,” Kokkinakis said.

“We didn’t expect to make ATP Finals, especially after playing one tournament for the year together. It’s pretty f****** crazy, really.

“We’ll rock up for sure. I think everyone is going to want to beat us, but that’s fine. I don’t think anything changes.”

Kyrgios added: “All I’m saying is the ATP are pumped if we’re there”.

But Kokkinakis thought their revolutionary half-court singles style wouldn’t be a game-changer for traditional pairings.

“Your game is your game and your style is your style,” Kokkinakis said.

“If doubles players try and play how we play it’s not going to work, and if we try and play how doubles specialists play it’s not going to work.”

Beaten finalists Matt Ebden and Max Purcell said the Special Ks were not the first to attempt a singles-style game on his court, but they were simply the best at it.

“At Indian Wells a lot of top singles guys will sign in and play,” Ebden said.

“It’s different to the doubles guys. Even most singles players won’t execute the game as well as they did tonight. They executed rocket serves, great returns, and roping balls from the baseline.”

Purcell said: “It’s not so much the singles brand of tennis on the doubles court, it’s more the fact they’ve probably got two of the biggest games in men’s tennis.

“A lot of doubles guys that play slams that get in with their singles rankings do exactly that. But they’re serving 160km, staying back, and then pushing the ball.

“We eat that stuff up as doubles players. That’s why those top ‘dubs’ players who only play doubles stay there because they play a lot of that early on in tournaments.”