"Novak Djokovic should keep him at arms distance; Such guys always drag you down" - Tennis fans skeptical of Nick Kyrgios' sudden affinity to Serb

With Nick Kyrgios hinting about a potential doubles partnership with Novak Djokovic, tennis fans are unsure about the Australian’s intentions.

A few days ago, during an interaction with fans on social media, Kyrgios put forth the idea that he might contest the men’s doubles at 2023 Indian Wells, partnering with the Serbian.

The World No. 22, who last competed against the former World No. 1 in the 2022 Wimbledon final, said that he would be going through with the idea if unvaccinated Djokovic was to be allowed inside the United States.

"If Novak is allowed in the USA we are playing doubles at INDIAN WELLS. Y'all ready?" the Aussie wrote on his Instagram stories.

The 2022 Australian Open men's doubles winner followed it with a post dedicated to the 21-time Grand Slam champion reiterating that a doubles collaboration was on the cards after the 'bromance' they struck at Wimbledon.

"New doubles pair this year…. Loading… Novak Djokovic you ready??!!" he captioned his post with picture from their Wimbledon final encounter.

This time around, the 27-year-old received a response from Novak Djokovic, suggesting that he was pumped up for the partnership.

Novak Djokovic responds

Tennis fans, however, are questioning the genuineness of the Aussie’s promotion of the possible partnership. Many have suggested that the Wimbledon runner-up, who previously bashed Djokovic on multiple occasions, might be hanging on to his "bromance" to increase his personal value, similar to the rapport he built with Andy Murray in the past.

"The point is that he’s just doing whatever he thinks gets him the most attention. None of it seems genuine," one fan remarked.

"It feels like the Kyrgios/Murray "bromance" used to be, which was 90% Kyrgios talking about how great Murray was while Murray mostly looked awkardly and tolerated his presence," another fan recalled.

Here are a few more reactions from fans:

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Nick Kyrgios hails his contribution to tennis after announcing possible collaboration with Novak Djokovic

Nick Kyrgios in action at the World Tennis League.

Nick Kyrgios, who stepped down from representing his home country of Australia at the 2023 United Cup, recently criticized the media for turning him into a "villain" and demanded an apology.

The 27-year-old spoke about his contribution to the sport and boasted about featuring in the first episode of Netflix's soon-to-be-released tennis docuseries "Break Point."

"Haha so after all this, all the media, journalism saying how bad I am for the sport, disrespecting the game & just a pure villain, I am going to be the number 1 episode on Netflix… to grow our fan base, basically trying to put tennis on the map again," he tweeted.

"And essentially putting more money in everyone’s pockets that’s involved with tennis, you all look really ridiculous now. Your apology should be as loud as your disrespect was," he further wrote.