Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia beat Oscar Otte of Germany 7-6 6-1 in the second rubber of the World Group Davis Cup tie between Germany and Australia in Hamburg on Sunday. However, Germany, who had won the first rubber prior to that, went on to win the tie by winning the doubles match.
Germany thus qualified for the quarterfinal of the Davis Cup and will face Canada in November for a place in the semifinals. We will now take a look at the couple of things that stood out in Kokkinakis’ victory over Otte on Sunday:
#1 Kokkinakis won a close first set through a tie-break:
Kokkinakis and Otte started exchanging blows from the baseline from the very beginning, but the 26-year-old Aussie had the more powerful serve. Both players succeeded in holding their serve for the first 12 games of the first set and the set went into a tie-break as a result.
Kokkinakis managed to edge out Otte in the tie-break, winning it 8-6. The German fought well and hit a few nice backhand down-the-line winners, but his opponent managed to have his nose ahead during key moments.
#2 Kokkinakis raced through the second set to win the rubber:
Kokkinakis began the second set in a resounding manner, holding his serve in the first game and then breaking Otte in the subsequent game. The Aussie then built on his lead, breaking the 29-year-old German once more and never losing his serve in the match.
Kokkinakis started playing the angles really well as the match progressed and Otte found it difficult to retrieve the ball moving across the baseline. Kokkinakis hit 12 aces in the match and won 83% of the points on his first serve against Kokkinakis’ 68%. The German struggled with his second serve in the second set and won 46% of the points on it in the match against Kokkinakis’ 55%.
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