Aussies in action: Kyrgios, Kokkinakis, Thompson return
Each playing in their first event after Wimbledon, Aussie young guns Nick Kyrgios, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis will return to action in North America this week.
Washington, DC, USA, 31 July 2017 | tennis.com.au
Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson will commence their US hardcourt seasons this week at the Citi Open in Washington DC.
Further south in Los Cabos, Mexico, fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis will also make his first appearance since Wimbledon when he takes on fellow ATP NextGen star Frances Tiafoe in the first round.
Kyrgios, as the 10th seed, receives a first-round bye in Washington and will take on the winner of the match between Go Soeda and Tennys Sandgren.
Should the seedings hold, he’d face No.5 seed Alexander Zverev in a blockbuster third-round encounter.
Kyrgios is making a return after a hip injury ruled him out of his title defence at last week’s ATP tournament in Atlanta.
Thompson, meanwhile, opens against Belgian Ruben Bemelmans, with the winner to tackle Zverev.
At the WTA tournament in Stanford, Ajla Tomljanovic is using a protected ranking to enter the Premier-level event.
She has drawn sixth seed CoCo Vandeweghe.
Joining Kokkinakis in the main draw in Los Cabos are Matt Ebden and Akira Santillan, who both won two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw.
The duo were among several Aussies enjoying good qualifying results.
Lizette Cabrera reached the final round in qualifying in Stanford, while Marinko Matosevic and Marc Polmans did the same in Washington.
Destanee Aiava and Olivia Rogowska fell in the first first round of qualifying in Washington.