"Threatened to fight": Kyrgios makes allegation against rival's coach 

"They're a nasty team to beat here," Nikola Mektic told press following a tough second-round exit to Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis. According to Kyrgios, things got even nastier off the court between the two teams when an alleged fight threat was made by Mektic and Pavic's coach.

Kyrgios took to Twitter to explain his side of the story.

"Just letting you know after yesterday’s chop fest in doubles my opponents coach and trainer proceeded to threaten to fight in the players gym tennis is a soft soft sport all because I moved and hit them with a tennis ball," the Aussie wrote. Mektic and Pavic haven't addressed Kyrgios' statements on Twitter and it's all speculation as of now, but one thing is for sure—the Croats were not happy with Thursday's on-court environment.

Very similar to Kyrgios' second-round tussle with No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev the crowd was very rowdy to the point that the chair umpire asked the crowd to settle down on multiple occasions. Medvedev managed to move past the world No. 115, but admitted it was difficult battling both Kyrgios and the crowd. Medvedev explained, "It's not easy to play against the crowd. These matches, are not easy to play."

Mektic and Pavic would certainly agree with the world No. 2 as the environment was no different during their doubles clash with the home team. Always ready to make his fans smile and put on a show in Melbourne, Kyrgios continued to do what he does so well; entertain and get the fans fired up. However, the No. 1 seeds were not pleased about any of it and called for the fans to show respect to all players.

"It's loud. They are pretty loud," Pavic said. "Obviously they cheer for Aussies. It wouldn't hurt them to show some respect to all opponents, to other players.

"We saw yesterday also with Medvedev how it was. So, yeah, I mean, that's how they are here. We're used to that. But like I said, yeah, it wouldn't hurt them to show some respect."

The top-seeds were supposed to make their 2022 debut in Sydney, but withdrew from the Australian Open lead-up event due to Mektic's illness. The team barely survived their opener against Federico Delbonis and Facundo Bagnis and felt disappointed overall with their short campaign at the first major of the season.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will be back in action on Saturday against No. 15 seeds Gonzalo Escobar and Ariel Behar in the tournament's third round.