Thanasi Kokkinakis has emerged from a big-serving battle, a minor injury scare and a dramatic 73-minute second set with Maxime Cressy to notch his sixth straight win at The Drive on Monday night.
Kokkinakis’ 7-6(4), 7-6(7) result was his first in Adelaide since he captured a maiden tour title in his home city last January and improved the ledger to 2-1 against the serve-volleying American.
Both players served 21 aces but it was Kokkinakis who pounced when opportunities came knocking deep in both sets to join compatriot Alexei Popyrin in the second round, an earlier winner over second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“Crazy memories to come back here, to see a packed arena on a Monday night,” Kokkinakis said. “The atmosphere and support, I wouldn’t have been able to get through without you guys.”
After Kokkinakis received treatment for knee pain after just the third game of the first set, both players had their chances in a fluctuating second set.
Cressy had held his first 10 service games before he was broken at the most inopportune of moments when he served to level the contest at 5-4.
His eighth double fault proved costly when it handed the Australian two match points in the ensuing tiebreak, before the result was complete on a Kokkinakis ace six points later.
The victory set a showdown with No.6 seed Jannik Sinner.
“It was frustrating. We both served well. I served about as well as I could have. It’s just minor moments against guys like that,” Kokokinakis said. “He’s serving second serves bigger than his first serve.
“There’s sometimes there’s not much you can do. You’ve just got to bide your time and hopefully he misses the couple like he did in the end there. He’s a hell of a player, had a hell of a year but yeah, stoked with that win.”
Earlier, Popyrin set about wiping the slate clean on a challenging 2022 as he posted a huge upset of Auger-Aliassime.
The 23-year-old Sydneysider rounded out a 6-4, 7-6(5) first-round triumph over the world No.6 on a day in-form Danish fifth seed Holger Rune fell to Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
It delivered Popyrin a much-needed confidence boost after ending last year with a 5-17 record and his ranking languishing at world No.120 from a high point of No.59 the year before.
Popyrin had already surged through two rounds of qualifying and carried that matchplay into the pair’s first meeting against an opponent who in contrast had enjoyed a watershed season.
While he owned top-10 wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem, both had come via retirement.
This, his first completed victory against a player of their mark, stood tall.
“I would say so. Yeah, for me, obviously he’s one of the in-form players that we have on the tour right now,” Popyrin said. “So yeah, if we go by ranking and by performance, then yeah, it’s probably one of the better wins of my career.”
A backhand winner on the run secured Popyrin the chance to serve for the set and his roar of delight under the centre court canopy roused the home crowd when he took it after 38 minutes.
This was an auspicious start against the world No.6, but Auger-Aliassime was a point from defeating Daniil Medvedev in last year’s Australian Open quarterfinals and had finally landed his maiden tour title from nine finals in Rotterdam in 2022, his first of four for the season.
The 22-year-old soon flexed his big-match response for a 3-0 lead in the second set only to be reeled in.
Not even a 5-3 lead on serve in the tiebreak was enough of a buffer to force a decider as Popyrin closed it out in just shy of two hours.
“For me, it’s just the hard work that I’ve put in over the off-season. Made a few changes in my team, brought in Xavier Malisse. He’s been a great addition for me,” Popyrin said.
“He’s really kind of re-teaching me how to play tennis but in a more calm way. But for me, look, after the year I had last year, like I said, it’s a really, really great win for me, but honestly, it’s not anything I’m super pumped about.
“It’s something that I fully expect myself to do, to be able to beat these players, and it’s how I come out to play these matches against these guys.”
It landed a second-round outing against American Marcos Giron in a quarter of the draw that also lost fifth seed Rune on Monday.
Rune had also arrived on the heels of a breakout season that included final showings in his last four events, including trophies in Stockholm and his first Masters 1000 in Paris.
After a promising start to his 2023 opener, the Dane came unstuck against Nishioka.
The 36th-ranked left-hander overcame a 14-ace deficit against the 19-year-old for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and seven minutes.
Nishioka, a runner-up to Nick Kyrgios to in Washington and a champion in Seoul last year, set a meeting with American Mackenzie McDonald.