Australia’s French Open singles campaign is over for another year after Thanasi Kokkinakis’s career-best grand-slam run ended in a fit of frustration and fury.
Key points:
- Thanasi Kokkinakis matched his career-best performance in Paris with a third-round exit
- Karen Khachanov has reached the semifinals of the last two grand slams in Melbourne and New York
- Kokkinakis was Australia’s last singles player in the draw at Roland Garros
Kokkinakis bowed out with a 6-4 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7-5) third-round loss to Russian 11th seed Karen Khachanov at Roland Garros on Friday.
Kokkinakis fought gamely to extend the match to almost five sets after engaging in a running verbal battle with chair umpire Katarzyna Radwan-Cho.
At one point, Kokkinakis was left exasperated at being denied the chance to go for a toilet break after losing the second set.
“All I’m asking is to try and piss,” he pleaded to the official.
“I get two for a match. Do you want me to piss on the court? Is that what you want? So what do you want now?
“I’m asking to go to the toilet. I like, cramped in my last match ‘cos I couldn’t … so brutal.”
Despite the drama, Kokkinakis battled back to take the third set, then have the world number 11 on tilt in the fourth.
Khachanov has reached the last four at the past two grand slams after ousting Kokkinakis’s doubles partner Nick Kyrgios from last year’s US Open quarter-finals.
But he looked a beaten man when Kokkinakis served for the fourth set, then forged to a 4-1 lead in the fourth-set tiebreaker.
Alas, Australia’s last man standing in Paris once again fell in the third round — as he did in 2015 as a teenager — after surrendering his big fourth-set lead.
Despite his disappointing exit, Kokkinakis is projected to rise 23 spots to number 83 in the world, all but guaranteeing a direct entry to Wimbledon next month.
But the 27-year-old will still rue the one that got away after being left infuriated by the chair umpire on Friday.
First he complained about her not intervening about fans chattering in the stands.
“They’re talking on my serve during every point and you’re not saying a thing,” Kokkinakis said.
Then, after losing the first set, the South Australian moaned about the courts being watered, which Khachanov totally agreed with.
“It’s already the slowest possible conditions — ever — and you’re putting water on a court that’s not slippery,” Kokkinakis said.
“The court is dying,” said Khachanov.
In even more worrying signs, after losing his cool mentally, Kokkinakis began to break down physically in the opening game of the second set.
He repeatedly clutched at his right pec, tried to stretch the muscle between points and complained to his courtside box about having “zero power on serve”.
Agitated enough over a line call that went against him, Kokkinakis then blew his stack about the “useless” chair umpire for being unable to control the crowd before dropping his opening service game of the second set.
Kokkinakis rallied to win the third set, raising hopes that the unfulfilled talent could reach the second week of a grand slam for the first time – some eight years after making the last 32 in Paris for his previous best major result.
But it was not to be, with Kokkinakis eventually submitting after three hours and 42 minutes.
AAP
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