Aussie hero Thanasi Kokkinakis battles through pain to seal remarkable win at Australian Open

Australian fan favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis has overcome multiple injury issues to pull off a miraculous win in a marathon first-round encounter at the Australian Open on Monday.

Kokkinakis fought back from a set down and battled through the pain to eventually beat Russian Roman Safiullin 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in just over four hours.

The Aussie hero came into the tournament with shoulder and hip concerns, but it was a fresh thigh problem that nearly caused an early end to his Melbourne Park campaign.

Kokkinakis dropped the first set before hitting back brilliantly to take the second despite being in obvious discomfort throughout the latter stages of the set, including taking a medical timeout.

He had work done on his thigh ahead of the third set, including having heavy strapping applied to the area.

But that only lasted a game before it was cut off.

Kokkinakis was clearly hampered and it looked only a matter of time before he was going to be forced to retire, but he bravely soldiered on and remarkably broke Safiullin’s serve to take an unlikely lead in the set.

However, the Russian broke straight back on the back of an underarm first serve from the Aussie to level the set at 3-3.

But just when it looked like the Aussie might falter, he remarkably won the next three games to take the set.

The match quickly turned into a survival of attrition with Kokkinakis pushed to the absolute limits, especially on his service games.

His opening service game took seven minutes, but that was nothing compared to a marathon third game that went for a staggering 14 minutes.

The pressure eventually told in the seventh game when Safiullin broke serve for just the fourth time from 22 attempts.

But the Aussie hit straight back as the set headed to a tiebreaker.

The tiebreaker was a tense affair, but Kokkinakis rose to the challenge to eventually win on his second match point.

“Just another one of my stupid long matches,” he said post-match.

“I could barely sleep last night I had a lot of anxiety. I was struggling but you guys (the fans) got me through.

“I was struggling. I think I tweaked something early in the second set ... I tried to take some painkillers and battle through.

“I never want to pull out in front of a home crowd ... my team, they did everything they could to get me on the court today.

“You guys are incredible.”

It was a remarkable performance considering he came into the tournament with multiple injury concerns.

He withdrew from the quarter-finals of his hometown Adelaide International with a shoulder injury with last week.

That came a week after pulling out of the Brisbane International with a hip problem.

Kokkinakis paid tribute to the fans for helping him get through the match.

More to come ...