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Max Purcell vs Thanasi Kokkinakis: ATP Washington – First round

Two Australians Max Purcell and Thanasi Kokkinakis will face each other in the opening round of the ATP Washington.

Max Purcell Profile

Max Purcell is 66th in the ATP rankings, and his career high was No. 40 in the world. The 26-year-old is 19-21 for the season and 8-13 on hard surface.

Purcell is coming off a 7-6, 6-4 loss to Juncheng Shang in the quarterfinals in Atlanta after previously defeating David Goffin and Christopher O’Connell.

His best result of the season came in Eastbourne, where he went all the way from the qualifiers to reach the final but only to lose 6-4, 6-3 to Taylor Fritz.

Purcell also reached the quarterfinals at the Taipei Challenger and the round of 16 in Los Cabos and Auckland.

This will be his third appearance in Washington, and he is still looking for his first win in the main draw.

Thanasi Kokkinakis Profile

Thanasi Kokkinakis is 88th in the ATP rankings, and his career high was No. 65 in the world. The 28-year-old is 22-16 for the season and 8-9 on hard surface.

This will be his first match since retiring in the second round of Wimbledon against Lucas Pouille. In the first round, Kokkinakis defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Kokkinakis won the Challenger in Sarasota this season and reached the quarterfinals in Bordeaux, Phoenix, and Los Cabos.

This is his second appearance in Washington after losing to Ugo Humbert in the second round last year.

Head-to-Head Kokkinakis leads 1-0

• Kokkinakis vs Purcell 6-2, 6-2 (2018 Aptos Challenger, first round)

Prediction and Conclusion

Both players have had many ups and downs so far in their careers and have failed to reach their full potential, and as it seems, the window is closing for that. Purcell has had a quite good season playing well on the Challenger Tour and has had a couple of solid tournaments on the ATP circuit. Kokkinakis is coming back from an injury that forced him to retire at Wimbledon. He had more than three weeks to recover, but it is still a question if he is in good form in DC. Both players rely on their serve on this surface, and it will take a while before any of them breaks. Given that we are going with over 22.5 games in total.