Thanasi Kokkinakis has breezed through his opening round match at the Indian Wells Masters, defeating Marcos Giron 6-3, 7-5.
The Greek Australian has now advanced to the second round in California, where he’ll play World No.3 Jannik Sinner.
In his match against Giron, the World No. 99 got off to a flying start, winning the first game without conceding a point, and then in the sixth he broke the American’s serve.
He one again got the break in the second set, this time in the 11th game, and only allowed Giron to score twice on him.
This allowed Kokkinakis to serve out the match to win in just under an hour and 40 minutes.
In what was the pair’s first head to head meeting, Kokkinakis was clinical in his serving, recording 13 aces to his opponent’s two, winning 86 per cent of his first serve points.
Last month he reached the quarter finals of the Los Cabos
Open, losing to first seed German Alexander Zverev.With 2024 Australian Open winner Sinner up next, it will be a challenging match for Kokkinakis.An upset win would go a long way in his hopes to become the first Aussie Indian Wells winner since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003.
Hewitt also won in 2002, while fellow Greek Australian Mark Philippoussis won the tournament in 1999.
Another Greek who won it was American Pete Sampras, twice in 1994 and 1995.
Top ranked Greeks in men’s and women’s respectively, Stefanos Tsitispas and Maria Sakkari are also competing in the ATP Master’s 1000, with both scheduled to play Saturday March 9 Australian time.
