{"id":190492,"date":"2022-01-25T00:40:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T01:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=190492"},"modified":"2022-01-25T20:59:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T20:59:55","slug":"pat-rafter-struggled-with-kyrgios-circus-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=190492","title":{"rendered":"Pat Rafter 'struggled' with Kyrgios 'circus' act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis royalty Pat Rafter<\/a> has given his blessing to the jolt of Kyrgios\/Kokkinakis energy that has revitalised the Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nick Kyrgios and Thansi Kokkinakis will play a doubles quarterfinal against Tim Putz and Michael Venus this afternoon after the thrilling 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over 15th seeds Gonzalo Escobar and Ariel Behar.<\/p>\n

A combination of the Novak Djokovic debacle<\/a>, COVID-19 crowd restrictions and Roger Federer's absence were threatening to take some shine off the Grand Slam tournament.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> Barty, Kyrgios and Nadal headline blockbuster day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former Olympic gymnastics champion dies from COVID-19<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Junior boxing champ shock contender for Newcastle Knights<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Special<\/p>\n

But Kyrgios and Kokkinakis are now one of the hottest tickets in town as doubles fervour hits levels perhaps not seen in Melbourne since the days of 'The Woodies.'<\/p>\n

"They've really brought a lot of energy to the tournament," Rafter said on Nine.<\/p>\n

"To see them light it up with this crowd – it's a whole different atmosphere that the Australian Open has got going on right now.<\/p>\n

Stream every match, every court of the Australian Open live and free on<\/em><\/strong> 9Now<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It's like a circus, it's crazy it's wild, the fans are different."<\/p>\n

Rafter admitted he "struggled for a little bit" to accept the brash new crowd energy surrounding the 'Special Ks.'<\/p>\n

"I've got my head around it now… doubles, you can have a lot more fun in it, and these guys are just lighting the crowd up," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Kyrgios<\/p>\n

"I'm actually a bit of a fan for it and it's great for tennis. Ask anyone who goes to watch these guys play. That's what tennis needs. I love seeing it."<\/p>\n

Kia Arena will be heaving again for this afternoon's quarter-final and Tony Jones asked Rafter if there was "no turning back" for tennis.<\/p>\n

"It appears so," Rafter replied.<\/p>\n

"But not everyone can do what these guys do either. They love that type of thing… They bring a different crew along."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis royalty Pat Rafter has given his blessing to the jolt of Kyrgios\/Kokkinakis energy that has revitalised the Australian Open. Nick Kyrgios and Thansi […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190497,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190492\/revisions\/190497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}