{"id":302707,"date":"2023-05-31T20:18:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302707"},"modified":"2023-05-31T22:59:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T22:59:41","slug":"rivals-shrug-off-kyrgios-sledge-after-kokkinakis-epic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302707","title":{"rendered":"Rivals shrug off Kyrgios sledge after Kokkinakis epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis<\/a> overcame veteran Stan Wawrinka and any blow back caused by doubles partner Nick Kyrgios<\/a> to win through to the third round in Paris with a hard-fought five-set victory, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3.<\/p>\n

All the talk leading into match was about the supposed rivalry between both players after Kyrgios\ufeff once famously taunted Wawrinka during a match in Montreal in 2015, telling the three-time grand slam champion, "Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend".<\/p>\n

Kyrgios even posted about the match up in the lead up describing it as a real "popcorn match".<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> What Smith told Maroons in passionate half-time address<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Player ratings: Rookie's 2.5 raises awkward question<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Shock binning defied as Maroons produce amazing win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And while the four hour and 38 minute clash itself was an absolute feast for tennis fans, \ufeffthose tuning in on a tabloid level to see if there was any venom between the two players, were left disappointed.<\/p>\n

Such was the respect between Wawrinka and \ufeffKokkinakis, that both men embraced at the end of the marathon match, with the Aussie offering kind words.<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2023 from May 28. Every match ad free and on demand.<\/strong> Centre court coverage in 4K UHD on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Stan is a legend," said Kokkinakis. "Still is, obviously, but he was a legend out on court today. He was very nice, very respectful. Yeah, hats off to him.<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9now<\/strong><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

"The first set and a half he was playing, I think the best tennis he can play. I was just trying to hang in there.<\/p>\n

"I lost a match in a grand slam earlier this year against (Andy) Murray from two sets to love [up], I didn't want to do it against another legend."<\/p>\n

Kokkinakis got off to a sluggish start, losing the first set before hitting back in the second to level the match, which then see-sawed until the final set.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/TKokkinakis\/status\/1664013121722122240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/rolandgarros\/status\/1663940157261729796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/raviubha\/status\/1663999286957293569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Wawrinka had already been in the wars after overcoming Albert Ramos-Vinolas in five sets and was gifted the only break of the first set with a Kokkinakis double fault on break point at 4-3.<\/p>\n

When the Australian went 4-2 down in the second, it looked like it was going to be a short day for the Aussie, but Kokkinakis increased his aggression and made Wawrinka move around the court more and eventually wore him down to take it 7-5.<\/p>\n

Kokkinakis looked in control in the fourth but Wawrinka\ufeff took the set in a tie-breaker before his energy levels seemed to dip as Kokkinakis reeled off four straight games even though Wawrinka rallied with a break and saved five match points. Yet the Aussie broke through with the confidence building win.<\/p>\n

"2015 was the last time I won a match at Roland Garros, and I made the third round\u2026 I love the energy, I love the atmosphere and we'll see what happens," the Australian added.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis overcame veteran Stan Wawrinka and any blow back caused by doubles partner Nick Kyrgios to win through to the third round in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":302709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302710,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302707\/revisions\/302710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/302709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}