LONDON: Within the space of two days Thanassi Kokkinakis has gone from elation to disappointment following his crushing 6-2, 6-2, loss to Daniil Medvedev at the Aegon Championships.
Going into the match, the injury-stricken 21-year-old was on a high after clinching the biggest win of his career yet. In the first round, he upset Canadian third seed Milos Raonic in two close tiebreakers. The victory promised to trigger a rejuvenation in the Australian’s form, which has heavily been affected by injury over the past 18 months.
“It’s tough obviously with a bit of expectation after getting my best-ever win last match. Again, that’s tennis. You can be up one minute and the next minute feel very far down.” Kokkinakis said after the match.
Hitting a string of errors throughout his clash with Medvedev, Kokkinakis never posed a threat to his opponent and was unable to get a single break point chance. World No.60 Medvedev maintained the one-sided lead with the help of 12 aces and a 96% first service rate.
Trying to rationalize his latest performance, an honest Kokkinakis was left with a sense of disbelief. Providing a brutal assessment of his performance, the former top-100 player admitted that once again he was troubled by nerves.
“Both matches I have been really nervous, and the last one I was able to find my way out of it, but this one, it’s like I wasn’t even on the court. It was pretty bad.”He explained.
Perhaps the only comforting thing following the disappointment is Kokkinakis’ positive physical condition. At such a young age, he has already experienced shoulder surgery, a torn oblique, torn pec, an elbow problem and a stuff back as well as other things.
“I’d say it was probably 99% mental.” He attributed his loss towards. “Yeah, I’m sore, but that wasn’t the reason today. My body didn’t really hold me back. I’m sore, but it’s normal after not playing for a while, especially on grass, getting there.”
In the lead up to Wimbledon, the Australian will play a couple exhibition matches in a bid to regain his confidence. Kokkinakis will be bidding to win his first match in a grand slam since the 2015 French Open.
Now a master in recovering from physical problems, Kokkinakis finds himself faced with a new issue – a mental injury. It is more complex issue for players to resolve with no time limit. In the case of the 21-year-old, he will be hoping for a swift recovery.
“I’m dwelling on it (the loss) big time. I wish I could put it to one side, but as tennis players, you have to have short-term memory, but for me, this one is probably going to stick around for a while until I win again probably or until I start feeling more comfortable on the court.” He admitted.
The Aegon Championships is only the fourth tournament he has played singles at so far this year.
