Thanasi Kokkinakis delivers thrilling first round win at Wimbledon

Thanasi Kokkinakis (YouTube)

The first round of Wimbledon came to a conclusion on Wednesday, and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Adelaide had a win for the ages. After trailing two sets to love to the 17th seed and 2021 United States Open semifinalist Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, Kokkinakis came back to win 4-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Double faults were a key statistic in the match. Kokkinakis only had four, while Auger-Aliassime had eight. Kokkinakis will next play qualifier Lucas Pouille of France in the second round.

In all, six Australian men advanced to round two. Alexei Popyrin of Sydney beat Thiago Monteiro of Brazil 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 and next plays another South American in the 30th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina in round two. In an all-Australian first round matchup ninth Alex de Minaur of Sydney beat James Duckworth of Sydney 7-6, 7-6, 7-6. de Minaur won the tiebreaks by scores of 7-1, 7-3, 7-4. de Minaur next plays Jaume Munar of Spain. Adam Walton of Brisbane beat Federico Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5, and will next play another Argentinian, Francisco Comesana.

Meanwhile, Aleksandar Vukic of Sydney won his first round match by beating Sebastian Ofner of Austria 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, but then lost in round two to reigning Wimbledon and French Open champion Carlos Alacaraz of Spain, the third seed, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2.  Also, Jordan Thompson of Sydney won his first round match by beating Pavel Kotov of Russia 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Like Kokkinakis, Thompson won despite losing the first two sets. However, like Vukic, Thompson lost his second round match. He was beaten on Wednesday by Brandon Nakashima of the United States 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

On the women’s side, only one Australian is left. That is Daria Saville of Melbourne, who beat Peyton Stearns of the United States 6-4, 6-2 in the first round. Next up for Saville is the 18th seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

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