{"id":409037,"date":"2024-07-03T19:59:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T19:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=409037"},"modified":"2024-07-03T21:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T21:05:31","slug":"kokkinakis-stuns-wimbledon-in-epic-two-day-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=409037","title":{"rendered":"Kokkinakis stuns Wimbledon in epic two-day win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis<\/a> has fought off a top 20 opponent, four match points and the weather to win one of the most remarkable five-setters of his singles career.<\/p>\n

The No.93 staged a steely-eyed comeback to knock Canadian 17th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime out of Wimbledon<\/a> 6-4 7-5 6-7(9) 4-6 4-6 in a first round match that lasted more than four and a half hours and finished almost a full day after it began.<\/p>\n

Kokkinakis gave up points at critical times early, going down a break in the third game of the first set and dropping three games in a row to drop the second.<\/p>\n

Watch Wimbledon 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus centre court in 4K UHD on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the home of grand slam tennis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Andrey Rublev urged to quit as 'disturbing' meltdown rocks Wimbledon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Eels in damage control after Moses' dressing room spray<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Immense' premiership winner locks in new deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But he showed real grit in the third set, keeping things on serve and fighting off four match points in a gruelling tie-break that he at one stage led 5-0.<\/p>\n

In the fourth, Auger-Aliassime double-faulted to give up a break and Kokkinakis was just a game away from serving for the set when the heavens opened up again as the miserable English summer played havoc with the first round draw.<\/p>\n

It was almost a full day later when the players returned to court two on Wednesday (early Thursday AEST) and Kokkinakis looked switched on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Australian forced the serving Canadian to four deuces but couldn't close out the set, instead relying on a faultless service game of his own to force a decider that was again briefly delayed by the weather.<\/p>\n

"It's not even raining!" a very Australian voice yelled out from the crowd as the match referee held the players off the court yet again early in the decider.<\/p>\n

The fifth set looked destined for another tie-break as both players served big and stepped up their games in the rallies, trading bombs from the baseline and beautiful light touches at the net.<\/p>\n

But Kokkinakis seized the clash by the scruff of the neck halfway through the set, breaking Auger-Aliassime on the back of two stunning returns, one unplayable and the other an outright winner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I knew I had to bring my best level. The first two sets didn't go as planned but I stayed the course," Kokkinakis said after the match.<\/p>\n

"I've come back from two sets to love before so I just tried to focus. It's pretty cliche but one game at a time, one set at a time and go from there."<\/p>\n

Serious during the match, the Aussie was at his light-hearted best courtside joking that London's weather was "back to normal" this week.<\/p>\n

Asked what he loved so much about playing grand slam five-setters he said "I'd rather not".<\/p>\n

"It really doesn't help me going deeper into the tournament, that's for sure. But if I could do it earlier, I would," he said.<\/p>\n

"Thankfully it is five, otherwise I wouldn't have won many matches this year. So I've come back, I've given myself a chance.<\/p>\n

"That's the beauty of five sets. It's a roller coaster. A lot of momentum swings and yeah, there's no shot clock, no time clock, so just just keep playing and see what happens."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vukic and Thompson go out in straight sets<\/h2>\n

Australia's Aleksander Vukic matched it with one of the tournament favourites for a set before eventually capitulating 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n

After going down a break, the world No.69 broke No.3 seed Carlos Alcaraz twice in a row to get himself in position to serve for the opening set.<\/p>\n

But the jeopardy seemed to be the spark Alcaraz needed to get going, stepping up his level notably to break Vukic at 5-6.<\/p>\n

Vukic pushed his more-fancied opponent, notably pulling off an incredible save from a well-placed Alcaraz drop shot, but went down 7-5.<\/p>\n

From there the Spaniard settled into more of a rhythm to ease through to a second round match-up with Frances Tiafoe in one hour and 48 minutes.<\/p>\n

Australian world No.40 Jordan Thompson was no match for American Brandon Nakashima, who dispatched his higher-ranked opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in a little more than an hour and a half.<\/p>\n

The No.65 dominated in all areas, sending down nine aces and hitting 37 winners to 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis has fought off a top 20 opponent, four match points and the weather to win one of the most remarkable five-setters of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409039,"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\/409037"}],"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=409037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409049,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409037\/revisions\/409049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/409039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}