Thanasi Kokkinakis to play Roger Federer in Miami Open second round

Thanasi Kokkinakis will take on world number one Roger Federer in the second round of the Miami Open on Sunday (AEDT).

Kokkinakis hammered France’s Calvin Hemery 6-1 6-2 in the opening round of the Masters 1000 event to set up his first ever encounter with Federer.

Ranked 175th in the world after being hampered by injury over the last two years, Kokkinakis went through qualifying, while defending champion Federer had a first-round bye.

The Aussie defeated Thiago Monteiro 6-2 6-3 and Taro Daniel 7-5 7-5 in qualifying, and was far too good in all elements of the game in his first round match-up with Hemery.

Kokkinakis was beaten 6-1 6-3 in qualifying for Indian Wells two weeks ago, while Federer lost the final to Juan Martin del Potro.

The winner of the second-round match will play either Fernando Verdasco or Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round.

Steve Johnson, Pablo Carreno Busta, Kyle Edmund, Kevin Anderson and Frances Tiafoe are all in the same quarter of the draw.

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— Thanasi Kokkinakis (@TKokkinakis) March 23, 2018

The 21-year-old missed Australia’s Davis Cup tie against Germany in February with a pec injury.

He picked up the injury during his first round loss to Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open this year.

Prior to that, Kokkinakis was sidelined with a shoulder injury that threatened to derail his playing career. He later revealed he injured the shoulder while lifting weights in order to get “bigger guns” because Nike were releasing some sleeveless tops.

In the past two years, Kokkinakis has also succumbed to a torn pectoral muscle and serious groin injuries.