Thanasi Kokkinakis has saved his hopes of defending his maiden singles title in Adelaide alive after outlasting fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin in a rollercoaster round-one match.
Kokkinakis, who got here flying out of the blocks in entrance of his residence crowd, battled again from a break down within the third set to win 6-0 6-7(5) 7-5 on Monday night time.
The 26-year-old was listless after dropping the second set tiebreak, through which he led 4-2 earlier than lacking a comparatively simple drive volley.
He was damaged early within the third however was in a position to regroup and guide a second-round match with prime seed Andrey Rublev.
“There’s a curse almost when you win a set 6-0. It was almost going too smooth,” Kokkinakis stated on courtroom after the match.
“I was being a bit of a softie for the end part of that match but I got it together … and toughed it out in the end.
“I began to get a bit flat and form of feeling sorry for myself after the second set. But I needed to develop a pair and get again to it.”
Kokkinakis had a dream run at the corresponding tournament last year when he beat big hitters John Isner and Marin Cilic on his way to the trophy.
The win comes after Kokkinakis bowed out of Adelaide 1 – the tournament played at the same venue last week – in the second round.
Popyrin, ranked 133, just three below Kokkinakis, was out of sorts early and a long way from the tennis that got him a win over world No.6 Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the quarterf-inals at Adelaide 1.
He won just eight points and made 10 unforced errors in a first set that lasted only 25 minutes.
But he got here to life and had the working till Kokkinakis broke again to degree at 3-all within the last set.
