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Thanasi Kokkinakis has saved alive his hopes of defending his maiden singles title in Adelaide after outlasting fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin in a rollercoaster first-round 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-Zero 6-7(5) 7-5 on Monday evening.
The 26-year-old was listless after dropping the second-set tiebreak, by which he led 4-2 earlier than lacking a comparatively straightforward drive volley.
He was damaged early within the third, however was in a position to regroup and guide a second-round match with high seed Andrey Rublev.
“There is a curse nearly whenever you win a set 6-0. It was nearly going too easy,” Kokkinakis mentioned on courtroom after the match.
“I used to be being a little bit of a softie for the top a part of that match, however I received it collectively… and toughed it out in the long run.
“I began to get a bit flat and type of feeling sorry for myself after the second set. However I needed to develop a pair and get again to it.”
Kokkinakis had a dream run on the corresponding match final 12 months when he beat huge hitters John Isner and Marin Cilic on his approach to the trophy.
The win comes after Kokkinakis bowed out of Adelaide 1 – the match performed on the similar venue final week – within the second spherical.
Popyrin, ranked 133, simply three beneath Kokkinakis, was out of kinds early and a great distance from the tennis that received him a win over world No.6 Felix Auger-Aliassime en path to the quarter-finals at Adelaide 1.
He received simply eight factors and made 10 unforced errors in a primary set that lasted solely 25 minutes.
However he got here to life and had the run till Kokkinakis broke again to degree at 3-all within the last set.
-AAP
