After 15 months away from the ATP World Tour due to injury, Thanasi Kokkinakis is wasting no time making headlines at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Competing in his first tournament back, Kokkinakis and fellow Australian Jordan Thompson advanced to the doubles final on Saturday. The wild card pairing delighted the home crowd by winning nine of the final 10 games in a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth seeds Daniel Nestor/Edouard Roger-Vasselin. “We weren’t originally going to play together in this tournament, but a couple of injuries happened and we ended up teaming together,” said Kokkinakis. “Obviously it worked out.” Kokkinakis underwent shoulder surgery in December 2015, then tore a pectoral muscle leading into the US Open and...
Rafael Nadal knows better than most that tennis is a game of fine margins. Although he suffered a three-set loss to Milos Raonic in the Brisbane International quarter-finals Friday night, it could easily have been a straight-sets result in the Spaniard’s favour. After winning the first set 6-4, Nadal had two break chances in the fifth game of the second to go up a set and a break. But he was unable to convert either opportunity, or one additional chance in the third set, as Raonic powered home to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win, helped by 23 aces. Nadal, who suffered just his second loss in eight career FedEx ATP head2Head meetings with Raonic, had been chasing his 70th tour-level...
Defending champion Milos Raonic remains on course to reach the final of the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp for the third straight year. While the Canadian says that he wants to come forward more in 2017, it was his serve and big forehand that earned him a comeback win over Rafael Nadal on Friday night. World No. 3 Raonic recorded only his second victory over Nadal in eight meetings with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in two hours and 21 minutes. The Canadian will now face seventh seed and 2013 finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals on Saturday. “I played very well [and] I did a lot of very good things,” said Raonic. “I obviously served well… I started creating...