Thanasi Kokkinakis has great form in 2023 but unfortunately for him, he always meets the best of the best.
It happened to him at Australian Open when he lost to former world no. 1 and in Indian Wells, the Australian was outplayed by the top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz. After an early exit from the first event of the Sunshine Double, Kokkinakis opted to compete in the so-called second-chance event.
That's the Arizona Tennis Classic, which is an ATP Challenger 175 played in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, and this year, it's attended by many players that lost early in Indian Wells such as Matteo Berrettini, Gael Monfils, and Diego Schwartzman, therefore the 'second chance' label.
Since the draw is full of star names, the Australian couldn't expect an easy first-round match. He took on world no. 47 Jiri Lehecka, who defeated Andrey Rublev in Doha last month. The young Czech player was the sixth-seed in Phoenix, despite his ranking being enough to be no. 1 seed at majority of Challenger events.
Lehecka started well against Kokkinakis as he broke in the first game of the match and he kept the advantage for a very long time. In the ninth game, he had a set point on his opponent's serve, but he couldn't use it.
On the other hand, Kokkinakis used his chances in the next game and broke back to challenge the Czech youngster in a tie-break. The Australian had a swift start into the tie-break and he never lost his advantage, winning it 7-5.
Kokkinakis built on his momentum in the second set and started with a string of eight points to lead 2-0. He then controlled the match with his powerful serves, winning 20 out of 23 points on serve.
After an hour and 50 minutes, Kokkinakis won the match 7-6(5), 6-4 to advance to the second round, where he'll await winner of the match between two qualifiers Pavel Kotov and Jan-Lennard Struff.
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