Thanasi Kokkinakis showed his qualities at the ATP Challenger event in Bahrain, winning his first title of the 2023 season.
At the 2023 Australian Open, the 26-year-old experienced a very painful loss to former world no. 1 Andy Murray. Kokkinakis spent a few weeks away from tennis courts, but he returned to action in Manama, Bahrain, and fought his way to the title there.
The 2022 Australian Open doubles champion is also a very good singles player, but he's still waiting for a big breakthrough, as his career-high in the ATP Rankings is 69th place.
Before entering the event in Bahrain, the Australian was ranked 141st, but his triumph will change that. In the final, Kokkinakis played against wild card Abedallah Shelbayh, who also had a very good tournament.
Kokkinakis controlled the match, and especially his serving was very good. In the first set, he hit 7 aces and thanks to breaking his opponent twice, he won it comfortably 6-1.
The second set was overshadowed by a few bad calls from line judges, which had to be overruled by an umpire, and players were really not happy about that as they both voiced their displeasure.
Despite the challenging conditions, Kokkinakis stayed in the zone and won the last three games of the set to win the match 6-1, 6-4 and lift his first title of the 2023 season.
It's his first title since last year's triumph in Adelaide and Kokkinakis will also return to the Top 100 in the ATP Rankings, as he'll be ranked exactly 100th on Monday.
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