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Australian tennis prodigy Thanasi Kokkinakis has advanced to his first tour-level final at the Las Cabos Open on the back of a hard fought tussle against top seed Tomas Berdych.
The Australian was forced to come from behind after dropping the first set 6-3. The second set saw the pair go game-for-game in the second set, before Kokkinakis played fearless tennis to claim the second set.
The Australian then broke early in the deciding set. Serving for the match at 5-2, Kokkinakis squandered a match point before holding his nerve to serve it out in the tenth game.
Kokkinakis served 17 aces through the match and only lost four points on his first serve in the last two sets. The Aussie was heavily supported throughout the match, and as a thank you gesture, signed and autographed for over 30 minuted after the match, showing his high-level of sportsmanship and down-to-earth personality.
It caps an impressive week for Kokkinakis, having earlier overcome fellow next-gen prospect Frances Tiafoe in two tight tiebreakers.
He also defeated Peter Polansky from a set down and Taylor Fritz. Kokkinakis will play big serving American Sam Querrey in the final, tomorrow beginning at about 1.30.
Unfortunately, unless you have an ATP Live pass or a Tennis TV subscription, you will not be able to watch the match live, however you can follow the match on the ATP website and see highlights, approximately two hours after the match finishes on the ATP YouTube channel Querrey won their lone encounter in 2015 in three sets.
Thanasi will gain valuable ranking points for the win after an 18-month injury layoff saw him drop outside of the top 1000.
His current ranking of 454 will be slashed by at least 220 spots and a win over Sam Querrey would see him back inside the top 200. The 21-year-old will also pocket at least $600 000 Australian Dollars, close to doubling his career prize money.
His run at Los Cabos would also see him make a late charge for the ATP Race To Milan. The Race to Milan is a concept making its debut this season where the eight best players aged 21 or under play off in a week-long tournament trialling new concepts such as Fast4 rules. Currently ranked 51st in the race, he would probably need to beat Querrey, giving him a ranking of 13, to give himself a shot at playing in the inaugural event.
In other impressive Aussie results this week, Japanese-turned-Aussie, Akira Santillan capped an impressive month (which has seen him rise to the top 200, win a challenger title and become an Australian citizen) with a round of 16 run at Los Cabos, after coming through qualifying.
Jordan Thompson also made it through to the round of sixteen, before falling Zverev. Despite the loss, the match was arguably the best of his career, staying with the powerful Zverev the whole match, even having a match point of his own, before ultimately losing in a third-set tiebreaker.
Alex De Minaur is through to the semi-final of the second-tier challenger tournament Castilla y Leon. Max Purcell and John Millman faced off yesterday for a place in the semi-finals.
Millman won in three sets and will play against Brit Cam Norrie for a spot in the Lexington Open final. Millman is also rising rapidly up the rankings after also experiencing an indifferent 2016 and early 2017 with injury.
Good Luck to all our Aussies, particularly Thanasi, and let’s hope he can get the job done!
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