Nick Kyrgios took the tennis world by surprise on his Instagram story, announcing that he and Novak Djokovic will play doubles together at the Brisbane International.

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Kyrgios has not played a professional event in almost two years due to knee, foot and wrist injuries, and the 29-year-old’s comeback tournament, which starts on December 29, now has an added layer of intrigue to it.

Djokovic rarely plays double in addition to his singles commitments, but the 24-time grand slam champion must be eager for more court time as he makes his way back from a knee injury of his own ahead of the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on January 12.

It is also the latest chapter in the bizarre enemies turned friends tale of the pair who faced off in the 2022 Wimbledon final.

Kyrgios re-shared a post from two years ago, which was a photo of them walking onto centre court at the All England Club ahead of his only grand slam final to date, on his story with the caption “Doubles at Brisbane. See ya’ll there” followed by a series of emojis.

The original post hinted that this pairing may have been in the works for some time as the caption was “new doubles pair this year… Loading…. @djokernole you ready??!!”.

It is a strange of turn of events when it was only in 2021 that Kyrgios called Djokovic a “tool” as the drama that surrounded the Serbian not getting vaccinated against Covid-19 reached fever pitch, while Djokovic said he “doesn’t have much respect” for the Australian.

The Wimbledon final was the first time Djokovic had beaten Kyrgios in a singles match, the latter had two victories in their previous two meetings, and up until that point, Kyrgios regularly trash talked Djokovic for not being as great as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal because they had both defeated him.

In recent times however, they have patched things up.

They were full of praise for one another after that Wimbledon final, they have practised together, played exhibition tournaments together, conducted friendly interviews while Kyrgios has been commentating and Djokovic has repeatedly thanked Kyrgios for standing up for him when he was deported from Australia ahead of the 2022 Australian Open.

“We definitely have a bit of a bromance now, which is weird. I think everyone knows there was no love lost for a while there,” Kyrgios said ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon final.

“I think it was healthy for the sport. I think every time we played each other, there was hype around it. It was interesting for the media, the people watching, all that.

“I felt like I was almost the [only] player to stand up for him with all that drama at the Australian Open. I feel like that’s where respect is kind of earned. Not on the tennis court, but I feel like when a real life crisis is happening and someone stands up for you.

“We actually message each other on DMs in Instagram now and stuff. It’s real weird! Actually, earlier in the week, he was like, ‘Hopefully I’ll see you Sunday’.”

It will be fascinating to watch how the new pairing plays out, and it remains unclear whether Kyrgios will team up with good friend Thanasi Kokkinakis, who he won the Australian Open men’s doubles crown with in 2022, at Melbourne Park.

For Djokovic, Brisbane will also be the first tournament of another unlikely partnership as one of his great rivals, Andy Murray, has become his coach.