Thanasi Kokkinakis comes from behind to back up drought-breaking victory

Thanasi Kokkinakis has backed up his drought-breaking win on the ATP Tour with a victory over world No.29 Lucas Pouille in Los Cabos.

Prior to this week, the Australian world No.191 had not won at the top level since defeating Roger Federer in March 2018.

But he is now into the quarter-finals of the Los Cabos Open after coming from behind for a 2-6 6-4 6-3 win over the fourth seed Pouille – an Australian Open semi-finalist earlier this year.

Kokkinakis served 12 aces and did not face a single break point in the second and third sets of the two-hour contest.

The 23-year-old will now face seventh seed Radu Albot for place in the final four at an event that appears to agree with him.

Then ranked 454th in the world, Kokkinakis reached the final at the 2017 tournament.

He is now set to rise to around 165th in the world, the victories providing a boost in confidence and form as he builds toward US Open qualifying later this month.

Kokkinakis was the third Australian to win on Wednesday in North American tournaments.

Kyrgios seals dramatic victory

Nick Kyrgios, who congratulated his friend Kokkinakis on the first-round win with an Instagram comment, made it through to the third round in Washington.

His second match in the American capital ended in acrimonious circumstances as chair umpire Fergus Murphy left the Australian dumbfounded over a missed challenge.

Kyrgios hit 24 aces as he breezed past 11th seed Gilles Simon 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in 90 minutes, however, he refused to shake the umpire’s hand after the victory.

Just seconds earlier the pair had engaged in a slanging match over a missed challenge.

Kyrgios, holding match points in a tight tiebreak, challenged a Simon serve but the request was missed by Murphy.

“What are you looking at?” the world No.46 asked the umpire before the next point.

Simon was made to wait for the debate to conclude to defend the match point but was unable to do so, hitting a forehand into the net to end the match.

Kyrgios shook hands with his French opponent but skipped Murphy and walked straight to his chair, only to begin airing his frustrations again soon after.

Thompson overcomes German rival

Jordan Thompson joined Kyrgios in Washington’s last 16 after a hard-fought 6-7 (8-10) 6-4 7-5 victory over 14th seed Jan-Lennard Struff.

The reward is a showdown with top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who came back from a break down in the second set to overcome Tommy Paul 6-3 7-5.

Alex de Minaur, however, faces a rankings freefall after failing to match his run to the Washington final last year.

A winner of the Atlanta Open on Monday, he is projected to drop outside the world’s top 30 after world No.122 Peter Gojowczyk won 6-3 7-6 (8-6).

De Minaur will need a big showing at the Montreal Masters next week to secure a seeding for the US Open starting at the end of the month.

Australian journeyman Marc Polmans pushed 10th seed Benoit Paire to the brink but it was the Frenchman who prevailed 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 (7-5).

with AAP