Thanasi Kokkinakis roared with emotion and received a standing ovation on The Grandstand after upsetting dual grand slam runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 7-5 for the biggest grand slam win of his stop-start career.
Incredibly, the fighting four-set triumph over the 11th seed was only Kokkinakis’s second victory at the Open in nine injury-plagued years.
“A massive relief,” he said in his post-match interview.
“Super happy, super pumped. It’s been well documented I’ve had some tight ones, but I’m starting to get on the winning side of them now.”
This was the Greek Aussie‘s second head to head match with Tsitsipas, with the Hellenic players now tied a piece at 1-1.
“I had a five-set battle with him a couple of years ago at the Australian Open and I was expecting a war,” he said.
“It was physical out there and I have a tendency to sometimes drag these matches on and have some real long battles, but I just tried to stay focused, stay the course and just tried to play every point.”
The world No.86 played in only his second main-draw win at Flushing Meadows and his first since 2019.
He said it is surprising he hasn’t played his best tennis there, given it should suit his game. Which it did when he was a US Open boys’ finalist in 2013.
“It’s my best win at a Grand Slam for sure,” he said. “A lot of hard work has gone into it, (as well as) just staying positive and competing my nuts off really.”
This was the fan favourite’s third top-20 win at a Slam, beating world No.13 Ernests Gulbis was a teenager at the Australian Open in 2015 and No.17 Felix Auger-Aliassme in the opening round at Wimbledon last month.
The 28-year-old’s reward is a golden opportunity to finally make a grand slam run in a wide-open pocket of the draw.
Kokkinakis next faces unseeded Nuno Borges, with Schoolkate a potential round-three opponent following the West Australian’s own watershed win over Taro Daniel.
With AAP
