Australian comeback man Thanasi Kokkinakis has powered into the main draw of the Miami Open, the scene of his finest hour against Roger Federer three years ago.
The 24-year-old from Adelaide, who was left so emotional after his return to winning ways in the Australian Open following years of injury and illness setbacks, made another significant step back on his return by winning his final qualifier on Tuesday.
Kokkinakis, who had beaten Portugal’s Frederico Ferreira Silva in the first round of qualifiers on Monday, again looked in good touch as he overpowered Spain’s Mario Vilella Martinez 7-5 6-1 to join five other Australian men in the main draw.
After his excellent effort in Melbourne last month, which also saw him push eventual semi-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five-set defeat, Kokkinakis failed to get through the qualifiers in Acapulco last week.
Yet he was not to be denied in landing another crack at the prestigious Miami tournament where, in 2018, he stunned Federer to become, at world No.175, the lowest-ranked player to beat a world No.1 in a decade-and-a-half.
Kokkinakis, the world No.243 who’s hoping to battle back towards his 2015 pomp when he reached as high as No.69, sent down 10 aces as he dismantled Martinez.
The key came at 5-5 in a hard-fought first set, which had already seen both men drop serve once, when Kokkinakis reeled off six straight points to break to 30 before serving out to love.
Martinez won the opening game of the second set before Kokkinakis took control, losing just three points on his own serve while breaking the Spaniard three times.
Martinez, ranked 46 places higher than Kokkinakis on the ATP computer, showed belated resistance by saving four match points before the Australian sealed victory in 84 minutes.
It represented more good news on the comeback trail for Kokkinakis, who has suffered so much from ankle, knee and shoulder injuries in recent years as well as having to overcome a debilitating battle with glandular fever in 2020.
Things were so bad that he even considered retiring from the sport altogether.
Now he joins Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, James Duckworth, Chris O’Connell and Jordan Thompson in the Miami main draw.