Thanasi Kokkinakis admits he’d already accepted defeat in another of his grand slam marathons until he conjured up some late-night resolve to outlast his crestfallen pal Alexei Popyrin at the French Open.
In a five-set all-Aussie epic that lasted so long the night session was already finished by the time it concluded at 11.37pm on Tuesday, a weary Kokkinakis joked the nerve-shredding, rollercoaster of a first-round match had taken years off his life.
But after beating his hitting partner and stablemate Popyrin 4-6 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 5-7 6-3 in a near four-and-a-half hour high-quality slog, he admitted how difficult it had been to beat such a good friend.
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“It’s definitely not easy playing a good mate and I thought Alexei played a hell of a match as well. He made me lift my level and I just had to stay with it,” shrugged Kokkinakis.
There wasn’t much he could say to a devastated Popyrin, who admitted afterwards after being in a position to win on several occasions that it had been “one of my hardest losses to take”.
Kokkinakis understood.
“When you lose like that, I don’t think you want to hear too much at the net,” he said.
“I just said ‘tough one, hell of a battle’ and he said ‘good luck’.
“It’s hard, I’m sure we’ll talk about it at some point down the track.”
This was another epic in the list of Kokkinakis grand slam sagas, which began in Paris in 2015 when he beat compatriot Bernard Tomic in five all the way through to last year when he defeated Stan Wawrinka in another French Open classic that went all the way.
But he’s had as many sickeners too, topped by the agonising five hour, 45 minute loss to Andy Murray in Melbourne last year.
And there were times against Popyrin when he’d resigned himself to believing the match would go the same way.
“I came from a set down in a very topsy-turvy match, started to get on top of it in the third, then dropped my level a bit as he raised his in the fourth — and then it’s just a dogfight,” Kokkinakis said.
“The things that you go through your mind is insane. I accepted defeat at some point, I was like, ‘oh well I’m gonna lose this one’.
“I had three set points in the second set, and all of a sudden he’s got a set point and I’m like, ‘here we go two sets to love’, it’s looking unlikely now.
“And then I win the third and I’m like, ‘I’m on here’ but I lose a fourth and I go ‘well, here we go again’. I’m down a break in the fifth and you think ‘oh my god’ it’s gonna be a tough night.
“And then you’ve just got to try and keep the faith amid this internal dialogue that you’re battling with yourself.”
Kokkinakis reckoned that he wasn’t going to get any sleep until maybe 4am.
“I’m a horrendous sleeper at the best of times. Tonight’s gonna be rough,” he said, accepting it’s not good news with tough Italian clay-courter Giulio Zeppieri awaiting him in Thursday’s second round.