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Read this Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open 2023 preview before betting on his next match in Round Two.
Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open 2023 Odds
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Heading into the Australian Open, Thanasi Kokkinakis was a 250/1 (251.00) favourite to win the tournament.
While Kokkinakis is playing in his home Grand Slam, and receives plenty of support form home fans and attention from the media, the reality is he’s a long shot to win here. Kokkinakis is ranked outside of the World Top 100, has only ever made the second round at the Australian Open, and only ever once made the third round in a Grand Slam.
However, after an impressive win in this opening match against the dangerous Fabio Fognini, Kokkinakis has improved his odds significantly. The Australian is still a rank outsider, but now sits at 100/1 (101.00), a real improvement on his pre-tournament odds.
Here’s a look at how Kokkokinakis first match unfolded, and what’s next for the Australian at the Australian Open.
Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open 2023 Last Match
The first round of the Australian Open was a frustrating one for Thanasi Kokkinakis. While he won in three straight forward sets over Italy’s Fabio Fognini, the match was strung out over day’s two and three due to a suspension in play because of rain.
Up against the former World No.9 Fabio Fognini, Kokkinakis was quick out of the blocks in front of a roaring home crowd. The 26-year-old dominated on serve with 14 aces and landing 77% of his first serves, while he also had excellent game play, striking 27 winners to 16 unforced errors across the match. Across three sets, the Australian faced only two break points, both of which he defended, while he broke his opponents serve on six occasions.
After pausing at 6-1, 6-2, 4-2 and 15-40 on Fognini’s serve, Kokkinakis required just a few minutes yesterday to round out the match, winning the remaining two games and sending himself to the second round.
Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open 2023 Next Match
By defeated Fognini, Thanasi Kokkinakis sets what will likely be the match of the day on day four of play in the Australian Open.
Former World No.1 Andy Murray surprised bookies and fans alike by knocking out the big hitting 13th seed Matteo Berrettini, meaning Murray and Kokkinakis will play in the second round. With both players having plenty of heart and a healthy underdog mentality, this should be an excellent clash. Kokkinakis will have the crowd behind him, which will likely have plenty of liquid courage by that stage given that the match is rounding out the night session on Margaret Court Arena.
We’re picking this to go the distance, and is a match you don’t want to miss one day four of the Australian Open.
Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open 2023 Prediction
Having put on an impressive display against Fabio Fognini, Kokkinakis will now see something of an opening in the draw.
His second round match against Andy Murray could go either way. The former World No.1 is playing with a metal hip, and was just kept on court for the better part of five hours by Matteo Berrettini in his first round match. While Murray is as tough as they get, there’s every chance that the Brit won’t pull up well following the win, and may not have the legs to go deep with Kokkinakis.
Australia’s big hope will have to dig deep here, but with a raucous crowd and a healthy dose of motivation thanks to his mate Nick Kyrgios being forced to withdraw from the men’s event with an injury, there’s every chance that Kokkinakis could get up for a win in this game. In the third round, Roberto Bautista Agut will likely wait, with Casper Ruud in a Round of 16 if he’s able to put together another big win.
We say Kokkinakis will pull off a win against Murray, but will run out of gas against Bautista Agut in the third round.
Kokkinakis Current Form Before 2023 Aus Open
Kokkinakis has been playing plenty of tennis ahead of the Australian Open. He played the first Adelaide warm-up event last week. And at the time of writing, he is also playing in the second Adelaide warm-up tournament. Then again, that’s no surprise since he is from Adelaide, so he must be loving playing in his home city.
He’s done rather well over the last couple of weeks too, as you can see from his last five games:
- Kokkinakis vs Kecmanovic – won – 6-3, 6-7, 6-1
- Kokkinakis vs Rublev – won – 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
- Kokkinakis vs Popyrin – won – 6-0, 6-7, 7-5
- Kokkinakis vs Sinner – lost – 6-7, 4-6
- Kokkinakis vs Cressy – won – 7-6, 7-6
As reflected in the last five matches shown here, Kokkinakis has been winning far more than he’s been losing. This is the case despite facing top-ranked players such as Rublev, Kecmanovic, and Cressy. In fact, the only loss he has suffered came against Jannik Sinner in the first Adelaide event.
Bear in mind Sinner is ranked 16 in the world, so this isn’t a shocking loss by any means.
Thanasi Kokkinakis Australian Open History
As an Australian player, naturally, Kokkinakis has made quite a few appearances in his home slam. He first played in the Australian Open back in 2013, so this year marks a whole decade since he first competed in this tournament. That’s pretty amazing, to be honest, yet his debut didn’t go too well as he lost in the opening round of qualifying. However, he followed this debut by making the 2nd round in the next two years – 2014 and 2015.
Due to injuries, he missed 2016, 2017, and 2020 Australian Open events. And for the other years that he played, his best performance was the second round, which he did in 2021. Each of the other three years he failed to go beyond the first round. So while he has played this tournament quite a few times, it’s not like he has enjoyed massive success in Melbourne. In fact, he hasn’t been involved in the men’s singles beyond the mid-point of the first week at any point.
But interestingly, he has won the men’s doubles event. He achieved this last year with Nick Kyrgios, which was pretty remarkable.
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