Australian tennis rising star Thanasi Kokkinakis is about to follow in his great mate Nick Kyrgios’ footsteps and train with Roger Federer.
After Kyrgios studied at the other end from the Swiss legend earlier this year, Kokkinakis will now enjoy the greatest learning experience of his career at a Dubai training camp next month.
The South Australian 18-year-old revealed his invite on Wednesday – showing his delight at landing tennis’ version of a golden ticket.
“Any time you can train with a legend like that it’s going to be so beneficial to your tennis,” he said.
“To see how what he does in the off-season, how he gets ready, I think it’ll be good for me.”
If Kyrgios’ encounter is anything to go by, Kokkinakos should get ready for an intensive experience.
“You’re going to be admiring him a lot, that’s what I was doing,” Kyrgios said.
“You give your best efforts and you’re going to soak up every minute of it.
While Federer is notably generous with his time, the chance to train with the 17-time grand slam winner is far from charity – Kokkinakis has enjoyed a boom year and cut his ranking considerably.
Beginning 2014 outside the world’s top 500 players, Kokkinakis won through to the second round of the Australian Open where he lost to No.1 Rafael Nadal.
With five wins over top 100 players this year, Kokkinakis has risen to No.158 in the world and has his eyes set on further improvement.
Before Dubai comes two challenger tournaments in Traralgon in the next fortnight.
It’s all building to his key goal for the upcoming season, to do well at his home grand slam.
“I think my game’s there. Hopefully with a good off-season I can get a lot stronger and fitter. I think I’ll be ready for it.”
The duo – dubbed the `Special Ks’ – enjoyed a question and answer session at Hartwell Primary School in Melbourne’s east on Wednesday.
Tennis Australia has tied the rise of Kyrgios and Kokkinakis through the world rankings to growth in its Hot Shots program for primary school aged children.
TA said that in four years, players have more than tripled to 140,000 – with 50,000 kids picking up a racquet in the last year alone.
