Ireland’s Ammar Elamin failed in his bid to make it into the main draw of the ATP 75 Challenger at Elm Park on Monday as he lost in straight sets, 6-2 6-1, to Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis in just over an hour.
Having beaten Ecuador’s Andy Andrade on Sunday, the 23-year-old Elamin faced a much tougher opponent in the second qualifying round, with Kokkinakis having won the 2022 Australia Open title alongside compatriot Nick Kyrgios.
Returning to fitness following surgery, Kokkinakis made his point that he’s back to peak condition with little fuss, converting six of the seven break-point opportunities against Elamin, who admitted that his service had let him down on the day.
“I’m playing against a player as good as him, I’m not serving well enough, and he’s gonna immediately take advantage of that,” said Elamin.
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Elamin’s landed his first serve less than half of the time, with Kokkankis pouncing for many of his points on his opponent’s second serve.
First serve — how often it landed in
At the beginning, Elamin and Kokkinakis traded breaks, and for a moment, the match felt open. Elamin’s drop shots left Kokkinakis scrambling to the net and won him four rallies, but Kokkinakis settled and found his tempo, swiftly closing the door on his opponent.
Break points — chances taken
For his part, Kokkinakis was measured in his satisfaction with his performance. He had not played on grass for some time and is currently working his way back to full fitness following pectoral surgery last year.
“A quick win is a good one for me,” said the 30-year-old. “I thought it was a pretty clean match. Now it’s all about recovering and making the body feel as good as possible – anything can happen on grass.”
Elamin left the court believing that he had learned a lot from it, saying: “I think I was definitely able to hang with him. Obviously, the score was one-sided, but I think the level difference was not as big as you might think. I mean, definitely, but if I make improvements, I can get to that level.”
Whether Elamin gets the chance to prove it in the future is another question, but he’s not short of motivation to find out.
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