"He's a legit contender" - Kokkinakis backs best friend Kyrgios at Wimbledon

| by Drew Tate

Thanasi Kokkinakis firmly believes Nick Kyrgios can win Wimbledon and he knows that it's a very important goal for the Australian.

Kyrgios has been in very good form on grass this year choosing to play many matches on the surface and for the most part he's been pretty great. Had he taken a couple of matches more seriously he might have gone away with a trophy but in the end, it was not meant to be. There was a minor scare in Mallorca as well with some abdominal pain (he retired due to that last year at Wimbledon) but he did not seem concerned about it.

He’s a legit contender. He looks great. He looks like he’s locked in. I had a look at his draw and I really like it for him. Obviously, Slams are tough but with his game and how comfortable he is on grass and how many matches he’s played, I think he can definitely make a big run here. I’m pretty confident in that."

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Kokkinakis further outlined the need to keep the matches as quick as possible not allowing them to go to a fourth or fifth set. That would be key for him.

There are a lot of good players out there, especially it being over five sets. There’s a lot of things that can happen over five sets. It’s tough to put people away in straight sets and the hardest thing is backing up matches after matches. But the key thing for him is if he can get it done fairly comfortably, especially in his earlier rounds, I think that sets him up really well.

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