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Thanasi Kokkinakis

168K views 1K replies 86 participants last post by  Sombrerero loco 
#1 ·
Turns 15 in two days but this week managed to get a win in the Maindraw of the Bundaberg Futures Tournament as a wildcard and then reportedly gave Michael Venus big struggles in the first set of their match. I don't know how many/if any 1995 kids currently have a seniors rank let alone those born in 1996.

This is his profile off Tennis Australia.

Thanasi Kokkinakis made solid progress in 2010. In May he was a member of the Australian team that finished top of its pool in the Asia–Oceania qualifying event for the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition. In the finals the team finished seventh.

The right-hander, who took up tennis when he was eight years old, continued to improve in 2010 showing good form at both home and abroad.

A member of the Adelaide National Academy, Thanasi is coached by Todd Langman and Brod ****.

Thanasi says his career highlights to date are representing Australia in the World Junior Tennis Competition and winning European Young Stars events in Holland and Paris

His ambition is to be No.1 in the world and play Davis Cup for Australia. He says the most influential people on his career to date are his brother, parents and Langman, his first coach.

Thanasi’s favourite player is Frenchman Gael Monfils “because he is so entertaining”. The Year 9 Scotch College student’s favourite subjects are PE, Health and Tech and in his spare time he enjoys Playstation, watching TV and sleeping. He likes listening to techno, hip hop, R’n’B, Michael Jackson, David Guetta, and Ministry of Sound compilations. His favourite food is pizza and he also likes to play basketball.
 
#3 ·
That's the criteria for success all right.. like his music taste.. Guetta is probably is pump up song before he steps out on court.

Good luck to the kid, pretty impressive results for a 14 year old and Venus is no slouch.
 
#4 ·
Qualified and got through the first round in Mildura with a 6-7 7-6 7-5 victory over Adam Hubble. Good to see he is able to win a close match against a much more experienced opponent. Will have a tough match in the second round against the winner of Kubler vs Verryth.
 
#5 ·
Into the semis of a 10k Belgian Hardcourt Future after having to qualify. Along the way he beat Luis Patino (979) 6-1 6-1, Ivo Mijic (839) 6-0 7-5 and then was leading 6-4 4-1 against Oliver Golding (513) before Golding retired. He plays the 3rd seed Elie Rousset (571) in the semis.
 
#8 ·
No luck in the semis with a very close three sets loss to the eventual champion. He also made the semis in the doubles after making the final in another futures double event the week before. Promising signs.
 
#9 ·
Thanasi Kokkinakis is a very unusual subject.

Only 16 years old, he has spent very little time on the Junior Tour, he played the Australian Open and its warm-up event in 2011 and 2012, and both times bowed out early to older boys.

Thanasi helped take Australia to the Junior Davis Cup final where they lost to the Italian team and Gianluigi Quinzi, another 1996 boy.

Thanasi started playing Futures in 2011. He played two events in the spring and made it to the second round of one of them as a 14 year old. In 2012 he began playing more senior events. He started by playing the challenger in Caloundra, and played four futures events in Australia following that, losing to Jason Kubler in the second round of two of them. In June he traveled to Europe to play a handful of futures there. His best result came in Belgium, where he beat Junior US Open champ Oliver Golding to reach the semi-finals. Following his runners-up in Junior Davis Cup he began playing futures in Australia where he made it to the quarter-finals in 2 events, and the semi-finals of one of them.

Thanasi is currently ranked 829, the second highest as a 1996 kid, with only Gianluigi ranked higher, but his semi-final points haven't been added on yet.
 
#16 ·
I'm watching. I'm very interested in Kokkinakis, mainly because he skipped juniors. I personally think that playing with pro's is the biggest tool in helping juniors get to the senior game, and that's all Kokkinakis has. I'm hoping he wins a round of Aussie Open Qualies, and does some damage at the Australian futures. He's got such a good ranking already that finishing the year inside the top 500 looks easy.
 
#17 ·
I'd say it depends on the player. The optimum is probably mixing in pro events with juniors, and if you are doing very well skipping the last year of two of juniors.
Very much disagree that this is all he has. He's able to play pro events right away because he is really talented. I mean he played the Junior Davis Cup and he was really good there.
 
#19 · (Edited)
My first couple impressions:
1. Nice pop on the serve for his age.
2. Sold from both wings but the BH is much stronger, a very pure stroke that he hits cross court really well
3. Weaknesses are the ROS and movement. He'll obviously improve his movement over the years but athleticism is not his strength.
 
#20 ·
I agree, he doesn't seem scared to go toe to toe with Verdasco's forehand which, regardless of whether it works out, is admirable.

I don't want to label him a future superstar, but this is very encouraging. Exactly what you want to see in a very young player, good basic skills.
 
#25 ·
I kind of agree with Smokey that from a technical standpoint, the backhand is better. The preparation being the main point here. The forehand has slight stability issues.

From an execution standpoint, he has no major problems on either wing. He's blasting winners very handily.
 
#27 ·
I feel like that's a common thing. From my personal experience my backhand is very technical, had to take a lot of hours worth of lessons to get it right, whereas my forehand I just figured out from hitting it a lot, so I personally can do it very well, it just doesn't look technical.
 
#32 ·
Looks a prospect for sure. You guys have dissected his game pretty thoroughly so I won't bother repeating it. Obviously the one thing that stands out is the serve, especially for a 16 year old kid. Might go and watch some of his matches in AO qualies to see how he plays in a quieter sort of environment. It's easy to be motivated and play your best tennis when you're playing on a big court in a huge stadium rather than grinding it out on court 15 against a seasoned campaigner...
 
#33 ·
Looks a prospect for sure. You guys have dissected his game pretty thoroughly so I won't bother repeating it. Obviously the one thing that stands out is the serve, especially for a 16 year old kid. Might go and watch some of his matches in AO qualies to see how he plays in a quieter sort of environment. It's easy to be motivated and play your best tennis when you're playing on a big court in a huge stadium rather than grinding it out on court 15 against a seasoned campaigner...
Agreed. He was definitely playing on adrenaline for a good part of the first set.

Nando is letting him hang around.
 
#36 ·
Good match from The Kokk. Amazing experience to have so early in one's career. Hope he can have a successful Aussie summer and keep developing as the season goes on.
 
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