Simon ends emotional week for Kokkinakis at Queens

 French seventh seed Gilles Simon ended Thanasi Kokkinakis's emotional Queen's Club debut with a 6-4, 6-2 second round victory over the Australian teenager on Wednesday.

Kokkinakis has spent much of this week in the air after making the long flight back to Australia to spend a day at home with his sick grandmother before an unscheduled return to Queen's.

The highly rated world number 70 had jetted back to Adelaide to be with his family after the French Open, only to discover on landing that he had been offered a wildcard entry into the Wimbledon warm-up event in west London.

Kokkinakis got back on a plane, shrugged off the inevitable jet-lag and captured his first tour-level win on grass on Tuesday when he came from a set down to defeat France's Jeremy Chardy.
But the 19-year-old, one of only four teenagers in the top 100, can now take a well-earned rest and catch up on some sleep after being brushed aside by Simon.

Next up for world number 13 Simon in the quarter-finals will be the winner of Wednesday's meeting between Canadian third seed Milos Raonic and France's Richard Gasquet.

Also in second round action on Wednesday, French Open champion Stan Wawrinka is looking to extend his eight-match winning streak, taking on South African world number 17 Kevin Anderson.

After his shock three-set victory over Rafael Nadal in the first round, world number 79 Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine will try to advance to the last eight when he faces Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Source: AFP