Kokkinakis, who came flying out of the blocks in front of his home crowd, battled back from a break down in the third set to win 6-0 6-7(5) 7-5 on Monday night.

The 26-year-old was listless after dropping the second set tiebreak, in which he led 4-2 before missing a relatively easy drive volley.

He was broken early in the third but was able to regroup and book a second-round match with top seed Andrey Rublev.

“There’s a curse almost when you win a set 6-0. It was almost going too smooth,” Kokkinakis said on court after the match.

“I was being a bit of a softie for the end part of that match but I got it together … and toughed it out in the end.

“I started to get a bit flat and kind of feeling sorry for myself after the second set. But I had to grow a pair and get back to it.”

Kokkinakis had a dream run at the corresponding tournament last year when he beat big hitters John Isner and Marin Cilic on his way to the trophy.

The win comes after he bowed out of Adelaide 1 – the tournament played at the same venue last week – in the second round.

Popyrin, ranked 133, just three spots below Kokkinakis, was out of sorts early and a long way from the tennis that propelled him a win over world No.6 Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the quarter-finals at Adelaide 1.

He won just eight points and made 10 unforced errors in a first set that lasted only 25 minutes.

But he came to life and had the running until Kokkinakis broke back to level at 3-all in the final set.

Chris O’Connell will still feature in the main draw despite compatriot John Millman beating him in the final round of qualifying.

Millman, who received an Australian Open wildcard last week, beat O’Connell 6-3 7-6 (9-7).

He’ll play Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, while O’Connell progressed as a lucky loser and will meet American Tommy Paul.

Fellow Australian Jordan Thompson wasn’t so lucky, denied a berth in the final tune-up event before the Australian Open, thanks to a 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 loss to Swede Mikael Ymer.

In the women’s draw, Petra Kvitova sent a reminder to the Australian Open field she is no spent force, showing off her powerful serve in defeating fellow Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

The Czech 32-year-old arrived for the second instalment of the Adelaide event in good spirits after an impressive United Cup campaign and it showed in a 6-3 7-5 first round win.

Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011, when she peaked at No.2 in the world, before adding another All England triumph in 2014.

Rybakina became the first Kazakhstani player to win a major title at Wimbledon last year but couldn’t make a dent on the Kvitova serve on Monday.

“I lost (to her) last season and she played really great, serving really well, so I focused on my serve, waited for my chances to break her,” said Kvitova, ranked 16 in the world.

The left-hander will play the winner of Shelby Rogers and Zheng Qinwen in the second round.

Last year’s Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins was in fine touch too, racing to a 5-0 lead over former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova before prevailing 6-2 6-4.

Her next assignment is Swiss qualifier Jil Teichmann, also fresh off United Cup duties, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-4.

And world No.13 and 2020 Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic was impressive in dispatching two-time grand slam winner Garbine Muguruza 6-3 6-4.

Bencic, who served strongly and didn’t face a break point, is coming off a mixed United Cup where she beat Yulia Putintseva but lost to world No.1 Iga Swiatek.

She’ll next meet Jelena Ostapenko or qualifier Anna Kalinskaya.

-AAP