Serving to force a tiebreak to decide the match, Kokkinakis—resilient under pressure from Federer all match long—fell behind love-30, leaving Federer two points away from clinching the match. And despite having multiple looks at second serves, the Swiss star was unable to capitalize.
Kokkinakis won the first two points of the tiebreaker before Federer won the next three to recapture the mini-break and get it back on serve.
At 3-4, Kokkinakis gained another mini-break. Federer won the next point, but the match was on the world No. 175’s racquet with two serves at 5-4. Winning the first to earn two match points at 6-4, Kokkinakis only needed one to clinch it and advance to the third round of the year’s second ATP Masters 1000 event.
For Federer—who was also pushed to three sets in his semifinal in Indian Wells against Borna Coric—there are still questions on whether or not he will play during the clay-court season. The move paid off last year as he went on to capture his 19th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. However, his hard-court stretch has come to an end much quicker than originally planned.
Kokkinakis, meanwhile, can bask in the biggest—and most satisfying—win of his career. For all the achievements of his countryman Nick Kyrgios, Kokkinakis was supposed to be right there with him shooting up the rankings. However, the 21-year-old has had to miss significant portions of the past few seasons due to multiple injuries.
This victory, though, shows that he’s back on track as he pulled off an upset that will have an impact on the whole tournament—and his own career going forward.
