Thanasi Kokkinakis became the Manama Challenger champion
after defeating the young Abedallah Shelbayh in two sets.
Kokkinakis
hasn't played in a tournament since the Australian Open, where he was
eliminated in the second round by
Andy Murray after winning the first two sets,
in one of the best matches of the year so far. Almost a month later, the
Australian appeared on the field again, and in the best way because he reached
the crown.
The
26-year-old player has never had enough consistency on tour, having recently
dropped out of the top-100 for failing to defend his points from Adelaide 2022.
Thanks to this week result, he becomes the new world No. 100, and it could be
the beginning of a good year, which will allow Kokkinakis to surpass his best
ranking so far (69th).
Before
lifting the trophy, he had to beat some tricky players, like his compatriot
Alexei Popyrin, and German
Jan-Lennard Struff. In the final he met the surprise of the
tournament, 19-year-old player Abedallah Shelbayh from Jordan, who couldn't do
much against the former Australian Open doubles champion, with a result of 6-1,
6-4 for Kokkinakis.