Thanasi Kokkinakis made a return to the ATP Tour at the Atlanta Open where narrowly avoided a defeat to Gael Monfils.
The French veteran is back on the Tour, and he played a really solid match taking the opening set 6-1. Kokkinakis won the second set and then mounted a superb comeback in the final set to win the match 7-5 in the 3rd set tiebreak.
It was a fierce battle between the players who are on a similar level right now though Monfils wasted a great chance to win. He was up 4-0 in the tiebreak and Kokkinakis himself admitted after the match that he thought it was pretty much over.
At 0/4 I thought it was pretty much over... From there it's one point at a time. In a tie-break you can go down quickly and can come back quickly. I got a point on his serve and then two on mine and all of a sudden he's feeling the pressure.
It was pretty stressful, especially in the first set, which wasn’t much fun He posed a lot of challenges and he is one of the quickest players on tour. I can’t get a ball by him most of the time.
Getting back to winning ways was important for Kokkinakis, who played in Granby last week. He's had a solid run so far this year but also some very disappointing losses. There were some injury concerns as well, but he's looking solid right now.
His next opponent is fellow Aussie Alex de Minaur, against whom he practised leading up to this event. It was a spanking, according to Kokkinakis by Demon, and he's looking to avoid that. Still, playing a good mate is always fun.
Demon and I are good mates. We share Davis Cup together, we train a little bit together. He's a hell of a player and he's leading the way for us Aussies. He's the defending champion here in Atlanta so he obviously likes the conditions.
I know it won't be easy. I practised with him the other day and he gave me a spanking. It should be a fun match.
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