Thanasi Kokkinakis, Australia’s star performer on the French Open, has been introduced all the way down to earth with a bump in Wimbledon qualifying, exiting on the first hurdle.
Adelaide’s big-hitter went all the way down to younger Swiss Leandro Riedi 7-5 6-4 because the ultra-competitive qualifying occasion received underneath method at Roehampton, a few miles up the street from Wimbledon on Monday, in what was an enormous early setback for the Australian problem.
At least Marc Polmans, Rinky Hijikata and James Duckworth all pulled off victories to make sure Australia would nonetheless be effectively represented as they efficiently negotiated the primary of three powerful rounds, in search of to make it into the primary draw on the All England Club subsequent Monday.
There was no hiding the frustration concerning the first-day exit of Kokkinakis, although, after his heroics at Roland Garros the place he defeated former French Open champ Stan Wawrinka in an epic five-setter earlier than pushing Karen Khachanov in a four-set thriller.
It was his deepest run in a slam for eight years and he talked afterwards of his hopes of as soon as once more making it into the primary draw at Wimbledon, the place he performed the champion Novak Djokovic on centre court docket final 12 months.
But his titanic efforts in Paris had left him with some bodily struggles and the qualifying occasion’s No.2 seed was removed from his sharpest as he was damaged whereas making an attempt to serve to remain in every set, finally happening to defeat in lower than an hour and 20 minutes.
Earlier, 31-year-old Sydneysider Duckworth, so typically affected by damage, made a high quality begin to the Australian problem, coming from a set all the way down to beat British wildcard Stuart Parker 4-6 6-3 6-1 on Roehampton’s Stadium Court, watched by a much bigger crowd than you’d see at many ATP occasions.
“Happy with that. It was my first match on grass this year, never easy, with a fresh court and up against a good grass-court player,” mentioned Duckworth, who performed in qualifying on the identical venue in 2012 however reckoned the entire occasion had now mushroomed right into a a lot greater deal.
The man who’s had 10 main surgical procedures to take care of his damage woes down the years retains battling again and reckons his finest years should be to come back.
“You’d rather be in the main draw than have to try to qualify but my ranking was just outside what was needed after I’ve had my fair share of injuries,” he mirrored.
“I’m 31 but I feel like I’m a bit younger, having had all that time off to deal with the injuries, so hopefully I can extend my career the back end of my career.”
Melbourne’s Polmans beat Italian Andrea Vavassori 7-6 (7-3) 7-5, whereas Sydney’s ninth seed Rinky Hijikata beat Adelaide’s Alex Bolt 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (11-9) after a nip-and-tuck one hour 47 minute all-Aussie battle.
On Tuesday, six of their compatriots will start the ladies’s qualifying marketing campaign, all hoping to bolster a main-draw line-up which grew to become much more starved of Australians when it was confirmed that star flip Ajla Tomljanovic has needed to pull out with a continuation of her season-wrecking knee damage.
Storm Hunter, Jaimee Fourlis, Arina Rodionova, Kim Birrell, Olivia Gadecki and Priscilla Hon shall be in search of to hitch comeback warrior Daria Saville, who’s the lone Australian in the primary draw because of being given a protected rating after she suffered a torn ACL on the Japan Open final September.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
