Nick Kyrgios's brilliantly unscripted Australian Open doubles title alongside close mate Thanasi Kokkinakis was the best example yet of the elusive key required to unlock his best tennis.
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"I just love team," Kyrgios said post match.
"That's what it's about. I've won some singles titles, it feels good, but this one ranks top for some reason."
The sheer loneliness of the singles court has long tortured the Canberra superstar.
His best is arguably as good as anything we've seen during the extraordinary Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era. But harnessing that talent for five-set stretches during grand slams has proven a laborious task.
With Kokkinakis beside him, Kyrgios was different on the court. He celebrated everything. His thumping serve and devastating forehand delivered on the big points.
The dummy spits were still there. Racquets were broken and balls occasionally swatted away into the crowd. But the Kyrgios smile always returned swiftly with his good mate beside him, in contrast to the regular verbal stoushes with his players' box which might as well be a million miles away.
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"I feel like a completely different person, to be honest, I'm just happy," Kyrgios said while reflection on their doubles run.
"On my off days I was waking up 7.30, coming here, hitting at 8.30, [taking an] ice bath. In the past I haven't had that many good people around me, they've taken advantage of me.
"I owe it to Kokk [Kokkinakis]. We both love basketball, we love that team environment. There aren't many people that I would call close friends to me, and Thanasi's right up there, I would do anything for the guy.
"There was a chip on my shoulder to do everything I can to play, and play well and look what happened. This is a memory that we're never going to forget.
"We're going to grow old and we're always going to remember that time we rolled off the couch and just won an Oz Open. Honestly. It's crazy."
This was a triumph cloaked in crowd hype and showmanship, which forced the Australian Open spotlight to shine brighter on doubles than it ever has before.
But underpinning it all was an unorthodox partnership challenging the very fabric of the traditional serve-volley approach to the doubles game.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were happy to slug from the baseline, backing their raw power to penetrate the defences of their more experienced opposition.
"If doubles players try and play how we play, it's not going to work, and if we try and play how doubles specialists play, it's not going to work," Kokkinakis said.
"There's heaps of ways to play doubles. For us, pretty much playing singles in a half court works."
The pair won't reunite on a grand slam doubles court until at least the US Open later this year, before tuning up for the November ATP Finals in Italy.
"The ATP are pumped if we're there, bro," Kyrgios said.
"People watch my matches, everywhere I play around the world the stadiums are full for that reason. There's a reason why the ratings are the way they are and people are glued to the TV when we play - it speaks for itself, really."
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