Nick Kyrgios hopes he never faces Thanasi Kokkinakis in singles again

US Open
Nick Kyrgios takes a break

Nick Kyrgios has made it clear that he has no desire to repeat his US Open first round match against Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Kyrgios described drawing his compatriot, doubles partner and friend and an absolute nightmare.

Kokkinakis never looked like getting on top, but Kyrgios was notably restrained on court and did not celebrate instead making an apologetic gesture towards his opponent after clinching match point in the third set tiebreaker.

Kyrgios said that it was a tough match despite his straight sets win and put the triumph down to him winning a few big points early in the match.

“When we both saw the draw, it was a nightmare, honestly,” Kyrgios said of facing Kokkinakis.

“We never want to play each other. I’ve just got so much respect for him. I can’t wait to get out there and play doubles with him on the right side of the net.

“We just know each other’s games like the back of our hand. We’ve played together since we were about nine years old. He knows my game well. I know his game extremely well.

“I just played the bigger points well early on. We’re going to play each other, hopefully, never again.”

Kyrgios advances to face Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, who battled past countryman Ugo Humbert on Court 6, 7-6(1), 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 6-2, in three hours and 31 minutes.

Kokkinakis lauded the game of his good friend Kyrgios and took the defeat in his stride.

“I though Nick played very well, he’s playing very confident right now, very free, obviously he always serve well.

“I didn’t play great to be honest, just didn’t find enough on return and wasn’t able to hit my groundies well enough. I though I served pretty good but that was the only positive I could take away.”

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Kokkinakis conceded that the match was among the most awkward that he has played in his career to date.

He found it difficult to get pumped up for the match against a good friend and was overwhelmed by the confident play of the Wimbledon finalist.

“It was hard to get pumped up, hard to get real fired up in the contest.”

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“When we play it is a bit tough to get that rhythm as well because when there are two pretty good servers going at it there are going to be some short points and its a lot of first-strike tennis so its hard to get good rhythm.

“It is never easy playing someone like that so it was definetly a bit awkward.”

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The pair have no issues with each other after the match but neither wants to have another go at it any time soon.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will team up to face the team of Hugo Gaston and Lorenzo Musetti in the men’s doubles first round.

Nick Kyrgios

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