Thanasi Kokkinakis’s return to the major tennis scene has been ended by fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a second-round five-setter that lasted four and a half hours.
On the comeback trail from repeated injuries and illness, the world number 267 scored his first Australian Open win since 2015 earlier this week, but fell to Tsitsipas in five sets — 6-7(5/7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-7(5/7), 6-4.
Playing just his fourth major from the past 14 editions, the Australian threatened a massive upset early by winning the first set in a tie break, but Tsitsipas reasserted his dominance with power and precision off both wings over the next three sets.
But Kokkinakis, despite being in a seemingly impossible position while serving at 4-5 in the fourth, refused to be put away as he saved a match point and won a six-deuce game, letting out a scream of relief after getting to 5-5.
Tsitsipas held to love in the next game but could not get on top of Kokkinakis’s serve, with another love hold sending the match to a fourth-set tie break.
Kokkinakis jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the breaker, Tsitsipas hit back to reach 5-5, before Kokkinakis took the set to force a deciding fifth.
“Give me something now,” he called into the crowd, which included Nick Kyrgios, with whom Kokkinakis was supposed to be playing doubles in the night session.
Instead he was locked in a battle with one of the best players in the world, and nothing was coming easy against the two-time major semi-finalist.
Kokkinakis immediately had to fight off two break points in the first game of the decider, but the ultimate test came two games later.
At 1-1, the third game of the set lasted more than 12 minutes and featured seven deuces and two Tsitsipas break points. But again Kokkinakis was up to the task, grimacing through some apparent leg pain as he rescued yet another game from the brink.
The story was not the same two games later, as Tsitsipas finally made good on his threat to break the Kokkinakis serve, and managed to carry that moment through to the end of the match.
