Thanasi Kokkinakis made mince meat of his round-one Australian Open opponent who was once ranked No.9 in the world.
But it seems he’s still struggling to get out of the shadow of his sometimes doubles partner, Nick Kyrgios, despite the latter not even competing at Melbourne Park this tournament.
Kyrgios was forced to withdraw from the Open on the eve of his first match, having sustained a knee injury in the lead-up.
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Last year he won the Australian Open men’s doubles title alongside Kokkinakis, as the two close mates made a stunning run to the silverware following Kyrgios being bundled out of the singles draw by Daniil Medvedev.
But with Kyrgios sidelined, Kokkinakis is one of the major local drawcards in the men’s singles draw this year.
He breezed through his first-round clash with Italian challenger Fabio Fognini, with their match split across two days due to wet weather.
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But Kokkinakis was hit between the eyes with the first question at his post-match press conference, when a journalist mistakenly began with, “hey Nick”.
Kokkinakis did his best to laugh off the awkward blunder, but seemed none too pleased.
“Oh, wow,” Kokkinakis said.
“That is (a) firing, that’s you done. I’m going to can that.
“That is shithouse from you.”
When the next question began with a different journalist addressing him by his actual name, Kokkinakis smiled and joked, “you’ve already done better”.
Kokkinakis will take on Andy Murray – another close friend of Kyrgios – in the second round.
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