By Ian Chadband
Thanasi Kokkinakis’ frustrating defeat at the Madrid Open ended in a spiky confrontation after accusations from his conqueror, Jaume Munar.
The Australian was left adamant his opponent had misunderstood him after Munar told him three times at the net following the Spaniard’s tight 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3) victory: “Don’t tell me to shut up again”.
“Or what?” Kokkinakis responded as the two engaged in a lengthy head-to-head.
Munar believed the world No.111 had told him to shut up at one point during the feisty two hour 37 minute contest, which boiled over intermittently.
But the man from Adelaide responded after being ticked off by the home favourite at the net afterwards: “I wasn’t getting angry at you”.
Kokkinakis tried to explain he had been talking to chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani about an issue earlier in the second set.
Australian world No.111 Thanasi Kokkinakis.Credit: Getty Images
The Australian did appear to shout across the net at the voluble Munar at one point, “Bro, you don’t shut up”.
Ultimately, the pair were left to agree to disagree after their long conversation.
Kokkinakis could also reflect on another frustrating loss in his first match since his agonising defeat at the Miami Open to Hubert Hurkacz after holding five match points.
This time, in his first claycourt outing of the season, Kokkinakis had set points in both stanzas against the world No.88, a specialist on the surface, before eventually losing both in hard-fought tiebreakers.
It will be particularly irksome for Kokkinakis, who’s only ever won four tour-level claycourt matches, as it felt throughout he had the match on his racquet, as he hammered 35 winners but blew a 5-2 lead in the second.
Along with his superior power and shot-making excellence, though, came too many unforced errors – 45 in all.
It marked the end of a long, fruitless opening day of the main tournament for the Australian challenge with Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin, the first two of the five Australian men playing in Madrid, knocked out.
Popyrin, the world No.75, got off to the ideal start against France’s Quentin Halys, ranked nine places higher, grabbing a break first-up before taking the opening set.
But Halys twice struck with late breaks in the remaining two sets to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 after one hour and 54 minutes.
The international highlight was three-time grand-slam winner Stan Wawrinka, the oldest player in the tournament at 38, recovering from a set behind to beat American Maxime Cressy 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and set up a second-round showdown with Andrey Rublev, who had a bye.
AAP
