Coco Gauff(US) lost her second round match against 5th seed Elina Svitolina(Ukraine) 6-4 6-3. Coco can count herself unlucky to lose a close match, she only faced 3 break points and lost 2. She lost first break point hitting the top of the net. Sometimes you have to hold your hand high and admit your opponent hit the ball well enough to deserve the win.

Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece negotiated his way out of a bind on Thursday. He was taken to 5 sets by Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis. The interesting sub plot is that the Aussie was born from Greek immigrants who emigrated to the land of Oz and also hold Greek citizenship. Thanasi won 2 sets on a tie break despite not winning any of his 3 break points the entire match. The first set was highly competitive, with both players not giving an inch to the opponent. However Kokkinakis was made to work hard to hold serve with Tsitsipas leading 5-4. Thanasi took the first set breaker 7-5.Point of the match. Second set, 1-1, Deuce on Thanasi’s serve.The long rally finished off with a drop shot at the net after great court coverage from both players. Tsitsipas would take the second set 6-4. The third was one sided as three breaks of serve handed Tsitsipas the set 6-1. Australia was about to lose another player from its own grand slam. Thanasi’s never say die attitude was on show, refusing to give up taking the set to another tie break with no breaks of serve and also surviving match points in the process. Both players had inexcusable unforced errors in the breaker but the good part is the set was finished off with one of the shots of the match. A backhand winner down the line by Kokkinakis to the delight of the fired up Aussie and the partisan crowd. 7-6 to Thanasi.

The last set saw the battling Aussie get broken again despite spirited resistance. Thanasi hit a backhand long(probably looking to place it just within the base line) serving at 30-40 2-2. That was the turning point of the match which Kokkinakis could not recover from. At least he made Tsitsipas work hard to get the win forcing him to serve it out 6-4.