Despite not qualifying for the main draw of the 2023 Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open directly, Thanasi Kokkinakis fought his way into it.
The 26-year-old had a turbulent start to the season as he recovered from a painful Australian Open loss by winning an ATP Challenger event in Bahrain. After that, his focus switched to Indian Wells, as all of the best players geared up for the first ATP 1000 event of the year.
Due to his insufficient ranking, Kokkinakis had to play in the qualifying as the ninth-seeded. In the first round, he defeated Yuichi Sugita, and he faced off against a very talented Matteo Arnaldi in the second, and final round.
In the first set, Kokkinakis managed to start with a break, but he had problems on his serve, hitting only 3 aces and also 3 double faults, as his opponent managed to break his serve twice.
However, the 2022 Australian Open doubles champion was very solid on the return and managed to break his opponent three times in the first set to win it 6-4.
The Australian found his footing in the second set, winning 84% of points after his first serve and facing only one break point which he successfully saved. Moreover, Kokkinakis broke his opponent again and after an hour and 51 minutes, he secured his spot in the main draw of the 2023 Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open.
In the main draw, the Australian may land in many different spots. He can be a first-round opponent of Brandon Holt and face a possible clash with the first-seeded Carlos Alcaraz in round two, or he can take on British talent Jack Draper.
Also, he can meet another qualifier for a spot in the second-round clash with the ninth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz, or her can meet the three-time Grand Slam champion, Stan Wawrinka. There are plenty of options and Kokkinakis will be surely hoping that the draw will be nice to him.
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