World number 66 Andy Murray has a challenge on his hands when he takes on the 159th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open on Thursday, January 19. Get the live streaming options of this Andy Murray v Thanasi Kokkinakis match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Andy Murray v Thanasi Kokkinakis Head to Head
Their only previous outing came in the 2015 Davis Cup competition and Murray had won that in three straight sets.
Also Read:
Murray Wins Seesaw Battle against Berrettini
Handed a tough first round draw, Murray came out all guns blazing in his opener against the world number 14 Matteo Berrettini. He had nothing to lose after all.
Or so one felt but two sets into the encounter, Murray was in the lead and suddenly the focus was on the Brit to score an upset victory. Murray had gone into the encounter as a rank outsider at 3/1 odds to win it after all.
Berrettini retaliated with aplomb as he won the third set after breaking Murray once and then took the fourth set into a tie-breaker before levelling things out. Interestingly, neither player got himself a break-point opportunity in the fourth set.
The fifth saw a similar battle with both players happy on their serves but finding it difficult to carve something out on their opponent’s. It was only in the 10th game of the final set that Berrettini had a match-point but Murray held on to his serve and forced another tie-breaker.
This time around though, the former Grand Slam winner was on the top of his game and raced off to a 5-0 lead before closing it out at 10-6.
Can Murray recover from this brutal contest in time for his second round encounter?
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Kokkinakis Wins Easily Across Two Days
Kokkinakis has been in such form that starting out against Fabio Fognini, his first round opponent, he was a 1/6 favourite. And while the elements of nature had their say in their encounter, Kokkinakis managed to rout Fognini and set up this delicious meeting with Murray.
The Aussie, who was a semifinalist at the Adelaide International 2 last week, having defeated Andrey Rublev on his way to getting there, crushed his Italian opponent 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second round.
He was on court for a mere hour and 46 minutes in which he slammed 27 winners and 14 aces while breaking his opponent six times in the encounter. In turn, he faced a mere two break-points and saved both of them with ease.
His real test will come now against a battle-hardened Murray, who not only saved a match-point to defeated the seeded Berrettini but also showed no visible signs of discomfort playing for that long.
Can he pull out another rabbit from his hat?
Murray v Kokkinakis Prediction and Tip
Kokkinakis starts off a favourite at 4/6 but it must be quickly added that the last time Kokkinakis made the third round of a Grand Slam was in 2015 – his only time. There is a reason why lesser players find it that much more difficult to win at Grand Slams and that’s the best of five scenario. Tipping Murray to eke out a victory here.
Tips:
- Moderate Risk Tip: Murray to win: 13/10 (Click Here to Bet with bet365)
- High Risk Tip: Murray to win AND Under 41.5 games in the match: 10/3 (Click Here to Bet with 888Sport)
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The 2023 Australian Open will be played from January 16 to January 29. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
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