Wimbledon Qualifying: Kokkinakis Not Pretty, But A Winner

Thanasi Kokkinakis showed his potential at the Miami Open presented by Itau, defeating top seed Roger Federer in the second round, before pushing veteran Fernando Verdasco to a third-set tie-break in the Round of 32. But due to injury troubles, he has gone 2-4 since, with only one of those matches (l. to Khachanov in Monte-Carlo) coming in a tour-level main draw match.

The Australian got back on track in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying on Monday, defeating No. 28 seed Marcelo Arevalo 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.

“It wasn’t pretty. It was pretty ugly, I came out really flat,” Kokkinakis told Wimbledon.com. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to play a couple of days ago [due to a quad strain]. I just went point by point and, hopefully, the body held up. It was ugly, but I got there in the end so I’ll take it.”

The 22-year-old will have a chance to move into the final round of qualifying against Pole Kamil Majchrzak, who beat Indian Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour. But Kokkinakis was not the only Aussie to advance on the first day of play.

Former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic, who reached the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-finals and the Round of 16 twice more (2013, 2016), beat Italian Matteo Donati 7-6(1), 6-3 in one hour. Tomic is attempting to compete in the grass-court Grand Slam’s main draw for the ninth consecutive year.

The Australian was not the only player who has enjoyed success at the event to move through. Former World No. 8 singles player and 2010 Wimbledon doubles champion Jurgen Melzer overcame a second-set hiccup to beat Slovak Jozef Kovalik 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2. The left-handed Austrian, who has played the singles main draw on the London grass 14 times, next plays Japan’s Go Soeda, who beat No. 9 seed Hugo Dellien 6-4, 6-2. Another former Top 10 player in the ATP Rankings, Ernests Gulbis took down 2012 Wimbledon Boys’ Singles champion Filip Peliwo 7-5, 6-2. 

Leading the #NextGenATP charge on Monday was No. 11 seed Hubert Hurkacz, who came back to defeat Frenchman Kenny De Schepper 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5. Michael Mmoh beat compatriot Noah Rubin 7-6(6), 6-2, and another American, Reilly Opelka, ousted countryman Mitchell Krueger 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The top seed and fellow #NextGenATP player, Jaume Munar, suffered a tough loss. Argentine Andrea Collarini beat the Spaniard 7-6(8), 5-7, 10-8. A familiar face at Wimbledon, Dustin Brown — who beat Rafael Nadal at the tournament in 2015 — also fell. Stefan Kozlov beat the German 6-3, 6-1.