Thanasi Kokkinakis out of tennis summer with illness
Just days after he confirmed he was injury free for the first time in years and looking forward to playing a full year in 2020, Adelaide’s Thanasi Kokkinakis has pulled out of the Australian summer of tennis – with illness.
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Just days after he confirmed he was injury free for the first time in years and looking forward to playing a full year in 2020, Adelaide’s Thanasi Kokkinakis has pulled out of the Australian summer of tennis – with illness.
Paul Kilderry, who heads up athlete management for Tennis Australia, confirmed that the 23-year-old will miss the entire month of January and not take part in the qualifying for the Australian Open.
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“It’s not injury, it’s illness, a fever,” a downcast Kilderry said with the player confirming on social media that he was experiencing health concerns.
Kokkinakis, who is looking to jump back up the world rankings from his current slot of 197, began only nine tournaments in 2019 (completing five) as he fought a succession of shoulder and pectoral injuries.
His six week pre season training included a week at Memorial Drive in Adelaide over Christmas when he returned from his Melbourne base to visit family and friends.
“He has not had a pre season like this for a long time,” said Todd Langman, Kokkinakis’ coach since he was seven-years-old, earlier this week.
When Kokkinakis spoke to The Advertiser on Sunday afternoon, hours after he had returned to Melbourne, he was in an ebullient mood and looking forward to beginning his season at a Challenger event starting in Canberra on Monday (it was announced today this tournament will relocate to Bendigo due to ongoing bushfire activity in the region) before attempting to qualify for the first grand slam of 2020. He was not discounting a possible wildcard.
Kokkinakis has always had a strong support system around him via his family and his coach Langman.
“I have to be healthy and play really well and stay injury free," Kokkinakis said on Sunday in relation to his 2020 schedule.
He will likely regroup but it is another blow for the man from Seacombe Heights who came to prominence at the Australian Open in 2014 and pulled of a major win against Roger Federer in 2018.