Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic’s unlikely bromance continues with the pair set to play doubles at Brisbane International

Nick Kyrgios has announced a shock team-up with Novak Djokovic at the Brisbane International after crediting the former world number 1 with motivating his return from serious injury.

Kyrgios and Djokovic were once bitter rivals, but are now close friends. They plan to play doubles at the tournament in Queensland, which starts on December 29.

The pair will use the event to warm up for next month’s Australian Open, with Kyrgios using an injury-protected ranking to secure a direct entry to Melbourne Park.

The Australian posted the announcement on Instagram, using a photo of himself and Djokovic walking to the court for their 2022 Wimbledon final, which he lost in four sets, and wrote ‘Doubles at Brisbane’. See you all there.

Djokovic told Kygrios in an interview at this year’s Australian Open that they should play doubles before he retired.

“You have to promise me something… recover quickly, come back to the tour before I retire and we have to play doubles,” Djokoivc told the Canberra ace.

Kyrgios and Djokovic have become good friends on the tennis circuit in recent years

Kyrgios has played just one ATP match since the 2022 US Open quarter-finals due to career-threatening wrist and knee injuries that required three rounds of surgery.

The 29-year-old recently revealed that a pep talk from 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic had aided his comeback.

He said he considered giving up tennis because his wrist was slow to recover from surgery 15 months ago, but the record-breaking Serbian encouraged him to continue after they struck at Wimbledon this year.

With his final tour match, a short-lived return to the grass in Stuttgart in June 2023, Kyrgios was in London doing commentary.

“I was flirting with Novak and he said to me, ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve had any surgery,’ and that was a big motivation to say, maybe I’ll make some progress and some progress to get back to come. because I didn’t really know,” the former world number 13 said.

“That was a big drive for me… so if he hadn’t said that, I don’t know if I would have been motivated and if I would have kept pushing that thought, but that was certainly a big part of the journey when he said that said to me.’

Kyrgios will take part in the World Tennis League exhibition event in Abu Dhabi for the first time from December 19, with the mixed team event also set to attract the likes of Iga Swiatek, Casper Ruud, Aryna Sabalenka, Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev.

Kyrgios won the 2022 Australian Open men’s doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis, but the duo are unsure if they can handle the workload in Melbourne.

Kyrgios was once a strong critic of the serial Grand Slam champion as the pair clashed earlier on the track before later settling their differences

“Everyone loved it last time, we loved it, it was so much fun,” Kokkinakis said last week.

“It certainly won’t be the priority for us… singles is definitely the goal.

“When you have a big five-setter, the last thing you want to do is play doubles the next day, but we’ll play it by ear and see how it goes.”

Qualifying for the Brisbane International starts on December 27 and the main draw starts on December 29.