Australian star Thanasi Kokkinakis has produced another excellent doubles result on the big stage, powering into the Wimbledon semifinals with Aleksandar Kovacevic.
The Aussie-American duo outplayed 14th seeds Nikola Mektic and Austin Krajicek 7-6(4) 6-3 to continue their unexpected run at the 2026 Championships.
Kokkinakis was not the only Aussie celebrating Wimbledon doubles success. Also on Tuesday, compatriots Marc Polmans and Storm Hunter advanced to the mixed doubles final, while another Australian, Ellen Perez, remains alive in women's doubles.
She and Dutch partner Demi Schuurs take on Shuko Aoyama and Liang En-Shuo for a place in the semifinals on No.3 Court at the All England Club on Wednesday.
Like last year’s finalists Rinky Hijikata and David Pel, Kokkinakis and Kovacevic are an alternate pairing, only entering the draw when Argentine brothers Francisco and Juan Manuel Cerundolo withdrew.
And in their first tournament together, they’ve combined beautifully, dropping one set in four wins so far.
That lost set came in the first round, when they survived Maximo Gonzalez and Santiago Gonzalez 5-7 7-6(7) 6-2 – saving three match points in the second set before accelerating away.
Since then, the scratch pairing have beaten 12th seeds Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, No.5 seeds Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski – the Australian Open 2026 champions – and Mektic and Austin for their third straight win over a seeded team.
Next up for Kokkinakis and Kovacevic are No.1 seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henri Patten, the 2024 Wimbledon champions who also won AO 2025.
Kokkinakis, now 30, is primarily known for his singles prowess.
The prodigious junior reached the third round at Roland Garros as a teenager in 2015 – a stage he would reach twice more – and won the ATP title on home soil in Adelaide in 2022. He’s also notched three wins over top-10 players, including world No.1 Roger Federer at the 2018 Miami Masters.
Yet Kokkinakis has built an impressive, and somewhat underrated, doubles career, peaking at world No.15 in November 2022.
That rise was driven largely by his Australian Open 2022 triumph with Nick Kyrgios, but he also combined to win the ATP Atlanta title with Kyrgios that same year.
He won his first ATP doubles title with fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson at the Brisbane International in 2017 and reached another ATP final in Los Cabos in 2018 – this time with Taylor Fritz.
Should he go on to triumph at Wimbledon, it would be his fourth tour-level doubles title and second Grand Slam trophy.