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Thanasi Kokkinakis continues his return to Tennis and will be out for a big first round victory at the US Open when he takes on struggling Serbian Janko Tisparevic. Join The Roar for live scores from around 4:30am (AEST).
Kokkinakis, after playing just two matches between beginning of 2016 and the start of the French Open this year due to injury is continuing his comeback from injury and finding more success than maybe anyone thought would be immediately possible.
Despite first round exits at both the French Open and Wimbledon, which he entered on the back of protected rankings, there was no shame in losing to either Kei Nishikori or Juan Martin Del Potro, both of whom he took a set off.
A victory over Milos Raonic at Queens proved exactly where he was in his return, and after a short break he returned at Los Cabos a few weeks ago and made it all the way to the final.
On the way there, he knocked over Frances Tiafoe, Peter Polansky, Taylor Fritz and most impressively, Tomas Berdych before falling in three sets to the big-serving Sam Querrey in the final.
With that, he has moved up to No.223 in the world and will continue dropping that ranking with every tournament he plays between now and April, with no points to defend.
Kokkinakis has been firing on first serve, and playing on the hard courts in New York, he will need to keep that number up, as well as his net play.
Tisparevic, on the other hand, is struggling to say the least. The world No.66 has battled his way through the year, missing the Australian Open and suffering first round exits at both the French Open and Wimbledon against Joao Souza and Jared Donaldson respectively.
Suffering with injury after Wimbledon, he was forced into a month off tennis, before qualifying for Cincinnati on his return. He was unconvincing in the qualifiers, and it showed as David Ferrer powered past him in the first round.
Things didn’t get any better for the Serbian, as he went to Winston-Salem and was thrown out of the first round by Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-2.
His serve is struggling big time, barely hitting 50 per cent against Seppi and simply put, without improvement this is going to be a very short US Open.
Another point to note is that there is more at play here than just tournament progression. Kokkinakis is a very real chance of being selected for Australia’s Davis Cup charge in the semi-finals, and a strong performance here would do nothing to hurt his chances.
Prediction
Kokkinakis has the form and confidence and will run past Tisparevic convincingly.
Kokkinakis in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this first round match at the US Open from around 4:30am (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.