After a subdued showing at this year ATP Cup in Sydney Team Greece was able to salvage some pride in a hard-fought win over Georgia. While Thanassi Kokkinakis held his own in Adelaide.
Despite problems with his elbow, world number 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas rallied with Michail Pervolarakis to beat Georgia in their singles’ matches to earn for Greece its first victory in Group D of the ATP Cup in Sydney on Wednesday.
It was the first tour-level victory for Pervolarakis when beat Aleksandre Metreveli 6-3, 6-2.
In double’s event the Georgians, Aleksandre Bakshi and Aleksandre Metreveli, prevailed over Tsitispas and Pervolakis.
Greece lost 2-1 to Poland and 3-0 to Argentina in earlier encounters.
READ MORE: Tsitsipas uncertain about ATP Cup following painful defeat
Maria Sakkari bowed out of the Adelaide International following her shock defeat to Shelby Rogers who is ranked number 40 in the world. She claimed a 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 win over the Greek world number 6.
Meanwhile, also in Adelaide Greek Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis was set to meet Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the tournament’s men’s quarter final on Friday evening. To get there Kokkinakis beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-5 and 6-1 on Wednesday; and fellow Australian John Millman 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday.
Nick Kyrgios cited asthma for his withdrawal from his ATP 250 tournament match against Slovakian Alex Molcan in Melbourne on Tuesday. The mercurial Greek-Australian will be hoping to make amends this weekend when he contest at another ATP Tour tournament in Sydney over the weekend.
After a difficult past two years, the 26-year-old must make much ground to cover if he is to improve his rankings and challenge at the highest level of the sport.