The first round of the Australian Open was a triumphant one for Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, with both young Aussie players winning decisive victories in their respective matches.
19-year-old Kyrgios, who is recovering recent back injury, took a medical time out during the first set, but recovered to beat Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in a match lasting three hours and eight minutes.
The biggest news of the day, however, was a stunning upset by 18-year-old Kokkinakis, who broke through to beat world number 13 seed Ernests Gulbis in a grueling five-set match, lasting four hours and seven minutes.
The youngster, currently seeded number 147 in the world, described the victory as the “best win” of his career so far. As you can pretty plainly see by his celebration at match point, the win was a sweet one:
Latvia’s Gulbis had issues with spectators throughout the match, at one point telling the crowd to “shut up”, but he refused to blame his loss on this, or a recurrent shoulder injury. “I lost, he won,” he later said in a press conference.
Kokkinakis now faces a second round match against fellow Aussie Sam Groth.
Man that was crazy!Support was unreal out there. Thanks to everyone who came out, I’ll work on the celebration 😉 pic.twitter.com/8d16kyYyTd
— Thanasi Kokkinakis (@TKokkinakis) January 19, 2015
Photo: Paul Crock via Getty Images
