Thanasi Kokkinakis is gearing up to make his ninth main draw appearance at the Australian Open in 2025.
Kokkinakis is set to play both singles and doubles with Nick Kyrgios in Melbourne, after winning his only Grand Slam title to date alongside his compatriot three years ago.
The world number 77 had made a positive start to the season, with Kokkinakis reaching his fourth quarter-final in Adelaide.
However, this achievement was overshadowed after Kokkinakis was forced to pull out from playing his quarter-final match due to a shoulder injury.
Thanasi Kokkinakis explains his frustration about shoulder injury
Kokkinakis has previously been sidelined with a shoulder injury, having undergone surgery ten years ago.
When speaking about the latest setback in his pre-Australian Open press conference, Kokkinakis’ disappointment was clear for all to see.
“I’ve felt better to be honest, I’m pretty frustrated,” said Kokkinakis. “Obviously pulling out last week was tough, I’m not sure how I am going to go Monday when I start. But we’ll see, I’ve got a few things I need to work through and yeah I’ll probably just leave it at that I don’t really know what else to say, I don’t know how I am going to feel on Monday.”
The 28-year-old continued, “It’s the worst feeling, because you feel like you do everything you can to kind of prepare and get as ready as you can be for me my most important event and then when something doesn’t quite go right and lets you down it’s tough.
“The thing I work the hardest on the most is to recover and make sure I’ve got in the best shape I can and when that fails you that’s the one that is pretty head scratching and it’s pretty tough. It is what it is at the end of the day, no-one cares if you roll out there, so you got to go and play and see what you can do.”
Kokkinakis will begin his singles campaign against Roman Safiullin on Monday January 13.
Will Thanasi Kokkinakis still play doubles with Nick Kyrgios?
With Kokkinakis vocalising his fitness concerns ahead of the Melbourne major, questions turned to his doubles partnership with Kyrgios.
Despite not feeling his best, Kokkinakis revealed that he was still planning to take to the court with Kyrgios, “I think both of us kind of made a little bit of a pact that unless we are seriously, seriously hurt like badly then we’re going to try and come out there even if we’re not feeling great.
“So yeah, that’s one thing we can rely on each other to play. We don’t know what we are going to produce out there, but we’re definitely going to try and take to the court for sure.”
It is not just Kokkinakis who has injury concerns, as Kyrgios is also struggling with both a wrist and abdominal problem.
Kokkinakis and Kyrgios have not played together since 2022, but are set to reunite in a first round match against another all Australian pairing in James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic.
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