Pub rock tennis: How Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are bringing crowds back to doubles

It is a little after 3:30pm on a lazy summer day and Rafael Nadal, he of so many grand slam wins it's long ago became very hard to keep track of them all, and Denis Shapovalov, who is likely to win a few of his own in the future, are on centre stage.

It's high-quality tennis, worthy of the two stars, and of course they were on Rod Laver Arena and of course Channel Nine had them on the main station, as befitting players of this stature.

But the program was interrupted for a special bulletin. Do not adjust your set, Nine were airing the latest dispatch from the Special Ks, the Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis doubles campaign taking the Australian Open by storm. 

The 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win over Tim Pütz and Michael Venus that was 2 hours and 15 minutes of raw emotion, noise, charisma and drama, booked the Australian duo's ticket to the semifinals and continued a ride that has the Australian sporting public entranced by doubles for the first time in years.

The last time Australia was so enraptured by doubles was in the Woodies' heyday in the 1990s. But this is different to when Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge ruled the roost – they won over the nation by stacking major upon major, retiring as the most prolific doubles team of the open era.

This is different. Victory was far from certain until late on, with the tighter doubles fundamentals of Pütz and Venus almost seeing them navigate the hurricane before the Special Ks surged ahead in the final frame. They still face a mighty climb to claim the title, with third seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos awaiting in the semi-finals.

And the Special Ks are a local act where the Woodies were kings of the road. Nine of their 11 slam victories were overseas, including their five