Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios crashed out of the men’s doubles in the second round of the Brisbane International after narrowly losing to top seed pair Nikola Mektic and Michael Venus.
Kyrgios, 29, lost a grueling three-set match to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Sunday as he returned to singles competition after 18 months out through injury.
Said the Australian defeat left him in “throbbing” pain. and stated that he was doubtful for this month’s Australian Open.
But he kept his promise to play with Djokovic in the doubles and appeared comfortable, only occasionally holding his right arm between serves.
The pair lost the first set 6-2, but responded well to win the second 6-3 and take the match to a decisive 10-point first tie-break.
With Djokovic and Kyrgios two points from victory, a double fault from the Serb proved costly at 8-6.
This shifted the tie-break momentum back to Mektic and Venus, who took the next three points to seal a 6-2 3-6 10-8 win.
“Amazing,” Mektic said afterwards. “I was very happy when I saw them (Djokovic and Kyrgios), I could play them on January 1.
“It’s a great feeling to start the year like this and we knew there would be points like that against players like this.”
Djokovic, who is chasing his 100th career ATP title, is through to the singles quarterfinals, where he will play Gael Monfils of France.
