Thanasi Kokkinakis wins first match since painful Australian Open loss
ATP
Thanasi Kokkinakis was one of the dark horses at the 2023 Australian Open, but he experienced one of the most painful losses of his career.
After dominantly beating Fabio Fognini in the first round, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, the Australian took on former world no. 1, Andy Murray, in the second.
Kokkinakis was up 6-4, 7-6(4), and 2-0 when everything turned around. His opponent produced one of the most sensational comebacks in a rally when he faced multiple smashes but eventually won a point and broke his opponent.
Almost a month after the loss, Kokkinakis is back on the tennis court and he's ready to fight for the top spots again. Currently, the ninth highest-ranked Australian is 141st in the ATP Rankings, and so he had to sign up for an ATP Challenger event in Manama, Bahrain.
In the first round, the 26-year-old played against a qualifier from Turkey, Yanki Erel. Kokkinakis, who is the eighth-seeded player at the event and one of the four seeded Australians, alongside Jason Kubler, Alexei Popyrin, and Christopher O'Connell, controlled the match from start to finish.
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In the first set, Kokkinakis hit 9 aces and didn't give his opponent many chances to think about breaking his serve. On the other hand, he created a chance to break in the eleventh game, and after using it, he won the first set 7-5.
The Australian stepped up his game in the second set and broke his opponent three times while losing only three points on his serve. After an hour and 16 minutes, Kokkinakis won the match 7-5, 6-1, to advance to the second round at the ATP Challenger in Manama, Bahrain.
Up next, he will face the winner of the match between Alexandre Muller and Oriol Roca Batalla. If Kokkinakis wins the event, he will most likely return to the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings again.
