Thanasi Kokkinakis won his maiden first round Wimbledon match overnight against Kamil Majchrzak in three sets 7-6(5) 6-2 7-5.
The 26-year-old slammed down 17 aces to four and won 80 per cent of points on first serve in a polished display of ball striking.
He struck 53 winners to 33 and recovered after an early break of serve in the third set to break twice himself and close it out in straight sets.
This victory on grass follows a quarter-final appearance on clay in Geneva, a grand slam doubles win at the Australian Open when teaming up with Nick Kyrgios, and a climb up the world rankings to no.79 after struggling with injuries in previous years.
Kokkinakis will now face top seed Novak Djokovic in the second round. The Greek Australian has only played Djokovic once before in the early rounds of the French Open seven years ago.
“It’s obviously going to be a really tough challenge. He’s won the last how many years? Yeah, I’m probably not the favourite, let’s put it that way,” Kokkinakis said after his match.
“It’s going to be good fun out there and I’m going to swing free hopefully and play my game. He’s a brick wall, so you kind of got to beat him. He’s not going to beat himself. So that’s going to be fun.”
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