Ricky Dimon On Site – No Hewitt, no problem? Australians look to heat up Indian Wells

Written by: Staff on 13th March 2015

Ricky Dimon On Site - No Hewitt, no problem? Australians look to heat up Indian Wells |

Lleyton Hewitt does not plan on retiring until 2016, but a scaled-down schedule this season means it’s up to the young guns to carry the proverbial Australian flag for a while–including this fortnight in Indian Wells.

That effort got off a solid start on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open. Although Sam Groth went down to Daniel Gimeno-Traver in a pair of tiebreakers, both Thanasi Kokkinakis and James Duckworth advanced to the second round. Kokkinakis, who took Juan Martin Del Potro’s wild card, beat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 7-6(3). Duckworth, a qualifier, upset Dominic Thiem 7-6(5), 6-1.

Fresh off Davis Cup heroics against the Czech Republic, Kokkinakis successfully made a quick recovery thanks in part to huge serving against Struff. The 18-year-old saved all three of the break points he faced, fired 10 aces, and put in 70 percent of his first deliveries.

“I’m enjoying [Indian Wells] a lot more than last year,” Kokkinakis joked, referring to the fact that he lost in the first round of qualifying in 2014.

Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, who have been showcasing stellar tennis already in 2015, will be hoping for similarly enjoyable results in the desert.

At just 19 years old, Kyrgios is already something of a Grand Slam specialist. Twelve of his 16 career ATP-level match victories have come in majors, as he reached the quarterfinals last summer at Wimbledon, the third round of the U.S. Open, and the quarterfinals of the recent Australian Open. The fast-rising Aussie has appeared in just one Masters 1000 event, in which he beat Santiago Giraldo at the 2014 Rogers Cup before falling by Andy Murray.

The always-exciting Kyrgios will be getting night-session treatment on Friday when he goes up against American wild card Denis Kudla. After succumbing to Feliciano Lopez in five sets Down Under, the 22-year-old went back to the Challenger circuit with little success. He more recently reached the second round in both Memphis (as a qualifier) and Delray Beach.

As a seeded entrant, Tomic will not take the court until Saturday. He has a blockbuster matchup on his hands with Borna Coric, who won a qualifying thriller against Bjorn Fratangelo to get into the main draw before cruising past Andreas Haider-Maurer in a high-quality match on Thursday.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: australia sports, Australian Tennis, Bernard Tomic, BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, James Duckworth, Lleyton Hewitt, Ricky Dimon, Tennis, Thanasi Kokkinakis

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March 13, 2015 at 6:18 pm

Ricky Dimon On Site -No @lleytonhewitt no problem? Australians look to heat up Indian Wells http://t.co/SLFUbqhKTp @BNPPARIBASOPEN #BNPPO15