Lajovic edges out Davidovich to reach Sydney second round

seed Dusan Lajovic opened his campaign at the Sydney Tennis Classic with a hard-fought win over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

The Serbian, ranked 43rd in theworld,triumphed7-6,6-4in one hour and 39 minutes to set up a second-round clash with American Maxime Cressy.

Cressy, who is in a good run of form after reaching the Melbourne Summer Series final before losing to Rafael Nadal, overcame Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-5, while fellow American Brandon Nakashima edged out Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely 7-6, 7-6.

Australian Christopher O'connell suffered a tough loss, going down 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 to fellow qualifier Sebastian Baez of Argentina.

Therewere,however,reasons foraustraliancheerattheadelaide International 2 as wildsixth card Thanasi Kokkinakis saw off world No 47 Benoit Paire.

Kokkinakis, ranked 145, beat the Frenchman 6-4, 6-0 in just over 70 minutes in the first round of his hometown event. Kokkinakis is starting to rediscover his form after having the past three years of his career blighted by injury and he wasted little time in taking down Paire, who has suffered recentcovid-19issues.kokkinakis now has a wildcard for next week’s Australian Open.

“Playing Paire was always going to be a tricky one. You never know what you’re going to get,” Kokkinakis said.

“(He’s) super talented, can pull shots from anywhere so you kind of have to weather the storm a little bit. But after a good run last week, I was pretty knackered – I’m not going to lie – but I thought another one in my hometown was a perfect situation.

“It was kind of a win-win for me almost. If I won, perfect, I getmorematches.ifnot,igetto Melbourne and get to prepare for Aussie Open, but I’m stoked with the win.”

Fellow Aussie Alex Bolt lost 6-4, 6-4 to American qualifier Stevejohnson,whilefifth-seeded South African Lloyd Harris also exited, beaten 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 after Korean Kwon Soon-woo had saved a match point.

Eighth seed Marton Fucsovics, the world No 38, had no suchproblemsasheoutdidbotic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 7-6, while lucky loser Thiago Monteiro prevailed over qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.