Thanasi Kokkinakis has kept alive his hopes of defending his maiden singles title in Adelaide after outlasting fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin in a rollercoaster first-round match.

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.

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“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.

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

Popyrin, ranked 133, just three below Kokkinakis, was out of sorts early and a long way from the tennis that got 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.

-AAP