AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2025

Thanasi Kokkinakis

Press Conference

J. DRAPER/T. Kokkinakis

6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Thanasi, bad luck on the result today. Despite your obvious discomfort, you took Jack to five tough sets. How are you feeling right now?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Not good. Pissed. 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.

Yeah, I'm angry.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Had the shoulder gone in the fifth?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: 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 knew after I had some serious decisions to make, and I'm going to miss some time. I just tried to kind of empty the tank today and 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.

Playing through the first one, playing through that one, I just know even if I win, at what cost? I know I'm going to be out for a while, I think. Yeah, I'm pretty flat.

Q. Can you give us a little bit of detail into what the actual issue is? Is there a tear?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: 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.

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. Yeah, 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.

Q. This is going to sound like a silly question. For clarity, you definitely won't play doubles?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't want... I feel like I'm letting him down, letting people down. But yeah, 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.

Q. Could you take something from the atmosphere that you were able to play in? What did you make of the whole occasion?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, I mean, always incredible. I was very doubtful going out there. Not because of my tennis, just I didn't want to pull out and let people down. I know it had been raining, and they were waiting a while to come out and watch.

I knew the energy would be incredible. It's why we train so hard and why we want to get out there and lay it all out there.

Yeah, it's just a tough way to go out, for sure.

Q. Do you think they were the right side of fun, or did you think they tipped over at times into being a great rough?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I played Great Britain in Manchester in Davis Cup. It was the same thing over there. Yeah, I think they were to be expected. I think they were great.

Q. Can I clarify again with the injury, you referred to it was shoulder.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Shoulder's fine. It's my pec.

Q. The tear is definitely in the pec?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah. I don't know if you guys, if you look back at the footage and see the physio massaging it, you tell me if you see a normal pec there. I'll be curious to see everyone's answer.

Q. When you say you know you're going to have to be out for a while, do you have any idea how long it might be?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't know. I'm going to speak to a bunch of experts after, probably tomorrow, as soon as I can clear my head and don't want to punch a wall. Try to work out what's next.

But yeah, 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.

Q. Halfway through the fourth set there's a point, interruption of some sort. Is it just nature to say, Jack has won that point? What was your thought process there, the sportsmanship? Do you think it was a fair thing to do?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: If you want to replay the point. I didn't hear what happened. Apparently someone talked through the microphone or something like that. It was a long point. I though he was going to win the point anyway. I gave him the point.

Q. Do you remember what he said to you at the net?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Mate, I have no idea. I think he said, I hope you are okay. I was seething. I had steam coming out of my ears. Nothing against him. I just knew my future was looking bleak.

Q. You've had a couple losses here. This one does seem like it might be the one that hurts you the most.

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, 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.

I knew that going into the event, it was a rough week of trying to just play this Aussie Open, then kind of see what's next.

I know I don't have forever left. So I don't know how long I'm going to be out or kind of what the future holds a little bit, even if I can get back to this point if I get something done.

Yeah, I'm just a lot of doubt and pretty upset.

Q. Did Nick's statement after his match hit you, the mortality side of it?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I'm not sure. I've been where he was thinking for many times. I didn't think I'd play another tennis match, let alone best-of-five set tennis. He's just come back. I've missed a lot of time. I know how hard it is to come back and find your best tennis and think you're there physically.

It's going to take him a little bit of time. Hopefully he finds that again.

Q. Obviously this is an old injury. When did you aggravate it again to get it to this level?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Honestly, I aggravate it every time I win a couple rounds in an event or I play a long one. I couldn't play against Korda last week because of it. I was feeling it against Etcheverry. I felt it in my first-round match.

It's honestly an every-week thing. I just try to take my days off. Days off in Grand Slams, I try not to hit at all. I try to do everything I can recovery-wise to heal it. It's frustrating because the rest of my body feels great. It's just this one injury. It affects my serve and my forehand. They're my two biggest strengths.

Q. They haven't said surgery will fix it or anything like that?

THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't know. I don't know. 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.