Thanasi Kokkinakis reveals injury after Australian Open loss, putting Nick Kyrgios team-up in doubt

Thanasi Kokkinakis says it is almost certain that he won’t be able to partner Nick Kyrgios in doubles at the Australian Open, revealing an excruciating injury suffered during his heartbreaking singles loss.

Thanasi Kokkinakis says it is almost certain that he won’t be able to partner Nick Kyrgios in doubles at the Australian Open after he aggravated an excruciating injury during his heartbreaking singles loss to Jack Draper.

Kokkinakis was left in agonising pain after his five-set loss to the British No. 1, then revealed his future in the sport could be at the crossroads unless he can find a miracle cure to heal his pectoral muscle problems.

“I try to do everything I can recovery-wise to heal it. It’s frustrating because the rest of my body feels great,” he said.

“It’s just this one injury. It affects my serve and my forehand. They’re my two biggest strengths.

“There’s no guarantees with surgery. I got told my shoulder surgery was going to be ready, I’d be healed up in three months. Ended up taking me a year and a half to get back.

“There’s no guarantees with surgery. One thing is for sure: I can’t keep doing what I’m doing. It’s mental torture and physical torture.”

Thanasi Kokkinakis battled injury throughout his five-set loss to Jack Draper. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Kokkinakis has struggled for years with different injuries but his current problems are the worst he’s ever had to deal with.

He says the pain intensifies when he plays long matches, effectively killing his chances of going deep at the grand slams because he can’t compete on successive days.

“Even if I won, I wouldn’t have been able to play the next match. I’m annoyed. I still had a chance to win. I’m angry,” he said.

“Shoulder was gone before the match. I just tried to tough it out. I was touch-and-go again to play this week. Took a million painkillers to try and get through.

“I know I have some serious decisions to make and I’m going to miss some time. I just tried to kind of empty the tank for this week and see what I can do. I put myself in a winning position. I didn’t have enough to get over, so that’s annoying.”

Injury frustrated Thanasi Kokkinakis throughout his five-set loss. Picture: David Gray/AFP

While believing he could have won against Draper if he was fully fit, having led two sets to one and 5-3 in the third before his body failed him, Kokkinakis said his greatest frustration was that he’s running out of answers to fix his health after trying everything.

“There’s a tear, for sure. I’m playing with a crazy amount of scar tissue in there. It’s something that every time I show a physio or a doctor or something, they’re taken back by it,” he said.

“I’ve tried to sort it out for years manually, without surgery, just trying to do what I can. It’s the reason why I can’t back up big matches. My whole body is fine. It’s just the same injury that I worked so hard on to try to get right. I still can’t do it.

“That’s the thing holding me back.

“I think it’s one of the big things stopping me from being able to reach my goals. I’ve had a pretty bad pec tear there for a while. There’s a lot of scar tissue build-up. Essentially I can’t play back-to-back intense matches no matter how much I train for it and try it. It’s very deflating.”

Thanasi Kokkinakis acknowledges the crowd as he leaves John Cain Arena after his loss to Jack Draper. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Kokkinakis is still entered in the Australian Open doubles, which he and Kyrgios won the championship in 2022, but said he doubted he would be ready in time to reunite with his Special K partner.

“I feel like I’m letting him down, letting people down,” Kokkinakis said.

“I don’t know, I won’t be able to lift my arm tomorrow. So we’ll see. Unless we’re both playing with underarm serves, it’s looking pretty unlikely.”

Regardless of whether he can play doubles or not, Kokkinakis said he had reached a point where he needed medical support to plot his way forward but was hopeful there was a way.

“I’m going to speak to a bunch of experts as soon as I can clear my head and don’t want to punch a wall. Try to work out what’s next,” he said.

“It’s clear that what I’m doing isn’t working. It’s a few tough decisions to make. I can keep doing what I’m doing now, hang around this ranking and have some good wins and a couple good matches and show promise, but in the back of my mind, I know I can’t progress deep in tournaments. Or I try to get something done and give myself a crack at being where I think I could be.

“I can take losing. I’m fine with losing. It’s part of it. I lose pretty much every week. It’s just what it means going forward a little bit. That’s the hard one to take.”

Originally published as Thanasi Kokkinakis reveals injury after Australian Open loss, putting Nick Kyrgios team-up in doubt