In the opening round of this year’s US Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas met defeat at the hands of Greek Australian tennis star Thanasis Kokkinakis.
As Tsitsipas experienced more turbulence since splitting with his father as coach, the Australian took full advantage to win 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and reach the second round.
With the exception of the 2nd set, when he appeared to improve, Stefanos Tsitsipas was trailing until the half of each set and then lost his concentration.
In the 1st set Thanasis Kokkinakis withstood the Greek’s counterattack in the tie break and won the 13th game 7-5 to take a 1-0 lead.
However, Stefanos Tsitsipas looked improved in the 2nd set, taking a 5-4 lead to go up 6-4 and tie the match at 1-1.
In the third set, the Australian tennis player led 2-3, Tsitsipas responded in the next game to take a 3-3 lead, but Kokkinakis went on a 3-0 run in the ensuing games to make it 3-6 and lead 2-1 sets going into the fourth.
In the fourth and final set, it became a battle. The Greek tennis player went ahead 5-4 and everything looked like he could tie the match at 2-2, but Thanasis Kokkinakis went on another 3-0 run to ultimately knock Tsitsipas out of the US Open and seal his way into round 2.
Kokkinakis next faces the unseeded Nuno Borges with Schoolkate a potential round-three opponent following the West Australian’s win over Taro Daniel.
Tsitsipas will now play in the US Open mixed doubles alongside Paola Bandosa against the pair of Santiago Gonzalez and Guiliana Olmos of Mexico.
