Roger Federer decided to skip Australian Open as he continues his recovery from two rounds of knee surgery but sent his congratulations to fellow player Thanasi Kokkinakis after his first-round win. Kokkinakis, has experienced vital injury setbacks as well as a battle with glandular fever but won just his second Grand Slam match in five years against Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon (6-4 6-1 6-1). "Obviously I didn’t want to think about the finish line, but I thought about it from the first set," said Kokkinakis. "At 5-0 (in the third set), I just felt this massive roar and massive cheer from the crowd, I started tearing up. It was a bit of a soft moment. "There’s so much stuff behind the scenes to get back to that point that not a lot of people realise apart from my team and my friends and family. Definitely got a bit emotional." In a screenshot shared to Kokkinakis’ Instagram account that showed a message from the Swiss, Federer wrote: "Nice on Thanaser. Happy for you." Kokkinkis captioned his message: "What a king."
Source: Metro