Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic’s doubles adventure came to a crushing end with the 24-time major champion making an unbelievable error at the death as they went down to number one seeds Nikola Mektic and Michael Venus at the Brisbane International.

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Leading 8-6 in the first to ten match tie-break after splitting the opening two sets, Djokovic hit a double fault to stun the crown and swing the momentum back to the Croatian and the New Zealander, who won every point from then on to advance to the quarter-finals.

The unlikely pairing of Kyrgios and Djokovic appeared destined to snatch a remarkable victory against the top seeds, like Kyrgios and fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis did on their way to the Australian Open men’s doubles crown in 2022.

But it was not to be with the enemies turned friends left to rue Djokovic’s costly mistake.

The match had threatened to boil over in the lead-up with Kyrgios having a history of incidents with his opponents.

At Melbourne Park three years ago, Venus and his then partner Tim Putz were left frustrated, and felt disrespected, by Kyrgios’ antics to rile up in the crowd in their quarter-final, while the now 29-year-old taunted Mektic and his partner at the time Mate Pavic by telling them to ‘enjoy their flight home’ after knocking out the number one seeds in the second round.

But part of the imagery of playing with Djokovic, is that Kyrgios seems to be a new person.

Tennis’ most unexpected bromance simply joked, laughed and celebrated winning points without the shenanigans the 29-year-old has been renowned for throughout his career.

Aspects of the larrikin were still there with Kyrgios regularly passing up the opportunity to hit a regular groundstroke in favour of hitting a ‘tweener’, and any frustrations after a miss-executed shot were kept under check.

On New’s Year Eve, Kyrgios was beaten by Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, and his monstrous serve, in three sets, which were all decided by a tie-break, in his return to singles action for the first time in 18 months ago.

A spate of knee and wrist issues have kept the Australian sidelined, but he showed minimal signs of rust ahead of his Australian Open comeback.

Djokovic on the other hand proved to be far too good for Australian Rinky Hijikata with a 6-3 6-3 win in the first round of the men’s singles, but on the doubles court, it was often Kyrgios that was leading the way.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion brickwall like baseline game was instrumental as always, although it was Kyrgios’ brute power combined his under-rated doubles nous that often caused more damage.

It remains to be seen whether they will ever partner up again, but for now, Djokovic’s attention turns to taking on French excitement machine Gael Monfils in a Round of 16 singles clash in Brisbane.

Kyrgios’ sights will now be set on Melbourne and ensuring he is ready to go for his first round match, which will most likely be on the rowdy John Cain Arena, in a little under two weeks time.