The first round match in Madrid featuring Sam Querrey and Thanasi Kokkinakis was a fun watch on Monday afternoon.  Querrey prevailed in three sets, 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3 after a really fine effort from Kokkinakis.  Querrey was untouchable on serve for much of the match.  He missed just two first serves in the first set and didn’t face a break point up to the position of serving for the match.  Querrey is well known for struggling to convert on winning positions and that was the case again.  Kokkinakis stepped up his aggression as Querrey was pushed back behind the baseline.  On his second break point in the game, Kokkinakis broke via a Querrey double fault.

The match went into a tiebreak where Querrey had two further match points… Kokkinakis saved both, winning lengthy rallies.  It was gutsy tennis from Kokkinakis, who continues to shine this year.  The 19-year-old Australian hasn’t lost a match in qualifying tournaments this year, successfully making the main draws in Memphis, Delray Beach, Acapulco, Istanbul and Madrid.  I think this is a pretty notable stat.  His game is pleasing on the eye and he seems to have all the shots there.  His best run so far this year came at Indian Wells where he reached the fourth round with two top 50 wins.  As he progresses up the rankings he will give himself more opportunities to hit the ground running in main draws.

The third set featured some superb rallies.  Kokkinakis hit a superb passing shot early on (see the tweet below) but the best one came on a break point for Querrey at 4-3 where he produced some staggering defence.  It was one of the best points of the year.  I’ve only just found a video of this point and it will probably get taken down soon! I found one yesterday but the ATP blocked the video.  It’s a shame that the ATP are spending more time focussing on blocking videos rather than actually producing them.  Anyway, thanks to chrishewitt9 for posting the video…

*UPDATE – THE VIDEO HAS ALREADY BEEN BLOCKED! IF ANYONE FINDS IT AGAIN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW :-)*

And credit to Querrey for closing this match out.  After that second set, I thought Kokkinakis was going to prevail.  Querrey will play Roberto Bautista Agut on Wednesday in Madrid.