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Injury-plagued Thanasi Kokkinakis has ended his six-month-long losing streak in style with a straight-sets win in Mexico.
The 21-year-old Australian wildcard on Wednesday (AEDT) knocked over Spaniard world No.299 Carlos Boluda-Purkiss 6-2 7-6 (7-4) at the Morelos Open on the ATP’s second-tier Challenger Tour.
He won three exhibition matches at Perth’s Hopman Cup and Adelaide’s World Tennis Challenge in January but hadn’t tasted success worthy of ranking points since August.
Fellow Australian Marinko Matosevic wasn’t as fortunate, falling 6-2 6-4 to Chilean Christian Garin.
Since beating top-20 player Tomas Berdych last August, Kokkinakis has been a losing finalist in Los Cabos and a first-round departee at the US and Australian Opens.
He was almost driven to retirement after injuries to his shoulder, groin, pectoral and elbow in the past two years.
Kokkinakis reached a career-high rank of 69 in June 2015 but has played just 32 tour or Davis Cup matches in the 32 months since.
He next faces world No.292 Daniel Galan.
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