Kokkinakis knocked out of Queen’s by Simon

Thanasi Kokkinakis has been taught a lesson by French veteran Gilles Simon at Queen’s Club, suffering a straight sets second-round defeat to end an emotional week for the exciting Australian prospect.

The 19-year-old, who defeated Frenchman Jeremy Chardy after flying back home to Adelaide to be with his family and ailing grandmother over the weekend, suffered a straight-forward 6-4 6-2 loss on centre court on Wednesday.

Kokkinakis admitted he was feeling fatigued following Tuesday’s victory over Chardy.

The effects of a 33,000km round trip and spending nearly 48 hours on planes over three days appeared to take its toll on the youngster.

He was broken twice in each set by the world No.13, who closed out the match in 77 minutes.

Simon advances to face either countryman Richard Gasquet or Canadian third seed Milos Raonic, who play later on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Casey Dellacqua went down to Serbian 15th seed Jelena Jankovic 7-6 (13-11) 6-3 at the Birmingham Classic, leaving no Australians remaining in WTA or ATP tournaments this week.

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