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Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis qualify for ATP Finals doubles

Australian pair Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have gained entry into the ATP Finals as a doubles partnership for the first time. 

Neither player has competed in the season-ending tournament, which brings together the year's best men's players in the singles and doubles.

But they are the fifth of eight pairings to join the doubles field after a year in which they claimed their first major at the Australian Open and the Atlanta Open crown, while Kyrgios added a title in Washington alongside American Jack Sock. 

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis played seven tournaments together this year, finishing with an 18-5 win-loss record.

They are the first all-Australian pair to compete at the event since Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley in 2005, when it was called the Tennis Masters Cup.

The Aussie pair got the nod for the ATP Finals because they won a grand slam title and neither world number 14 Kyrgios nor 17th-ranked Kokkinakis can be caught in the rankings by fellow Australians Matt Ebden (31st) and Max Purcell (37th), who were beaten in the Australian Open final before going on to win Wimbledon.

French Open champions Marcelo Arévalo and Jean-Julien Rojer, and US Open winners Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are in the field, along with Croatian pair Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić, and Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski. There are three more slots left to fill.

While celebrating another opportunity to play with his great mate in Turin, Italy from November 13 to 20, Kyrgios lamented his absence from the singles draw.

"Should of (sic) been in singles as well [but] no points at Wimbledon," he wrote on Instagram, followed by two crying laughing emojis.

"First time in 53 years but we won't speak of that."

The world number 22 in men's singles is referring to not getting any rankings rewards for his run to the Wimbledon final, when he lost in four sets to Novak Djokovic.

The men's and women's tours stripped Wimbledon of its rankings points after the All England Club banned Russian and Belarusian players from playing as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

That meant his ranking actually dropped after his best-ever finish at a major, leaving him on the outside looking in at the star-studded singles field.

The top five men's players — Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas — as well as seventh-ranked Wimbledon champion Djokovic have all qualified.

American Taylor Fritz, in-form Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev of Russia and Polish world number 10 Hubert Hurkacz are in the running to round out the eight-player field.

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