Exclusive chat as Kokkinakis makes return to Adelaide International’s centre court
Tennis writer Richard Evans chats one-on-one with Adelaide’s own tennis ace Thanasi Kokkinakis about his crowd-pulling first match tonight – and what “looks like a shark bite” beneath his right shoulder.
Thanasi Kokkinakis has a new, serious looking scar just beneath his right shoulder.
“It looks like a shark bite,” he smiles of the surgery last year to correct a long running pectoral rupture that was crippling his career and came to a head 12 months ago when he pulled out of the 2025 Adelaide International shortly before his third round match.
“I was distraught but I think the thing that really killed me, was the fact I knew I’d have to miss the year probably,” the now 29-year-old Kokkinakis said.
A change had to happen, his career boiling down to impressive wins followed by lengthy periods out when his shoulder couldn’t hold up. A few days after Adelaide last year he entered the Australian Open where disaster struck in the second round.
“My arm was holding on by a thread. The next day, I could barely lift my arm and tried to walk out for doubles but I couldn’t serve over 100 kilometres (half his average speed). I knew this was the same injury that’s bothered me for the last five years,” he said.
When it arrived, the nature of the surgery was shocking, the revolutionary procedure involving an achilles allograft (donated tissue from a cadaver) to try and attach his pectoral muscle to his shoulder.
“I had shoulder surgery in the past and the surgeon tells you, you’re going to be back in three, four months and it never works like that. I knew this was going to be a 12 month recovery and it was even riskier because I’d never known a tennis player have this surgery.”
The uncertainty meant a lot of surgeons didn’t want to know.
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“I did a lot of my own research, I was on Google and YouTube ’til all hours. I spoke to a bunch of doctors and did my own research because in the end, it is my body. When I hurt my pec in the past, I listened to the experts and the people that were looking after me at the time and that didn’t go well.
“So this one, I just did all the research I could and I thought, this is probably the only way to go if I want to try and have a different result.”
The surgery, in Melbourne last February, means he has not played a competitive singles match for almost 12 months. (A doubles dalliance with Nick Kyrgios in Brisbane last week was an initial tester only.)
Tonight’s first round match in the Adelaide International Tennis Tournament running from January 12 until January 17 – with some irony – is against Sebastian Korda, a stringy, athletic opponent who has been as high as 15 in the world rankings and the man Kokkinakis was due to play in Adelaide before he was forced out last year.
They have met three times with Korda victorious on each occasion albeit the South Australian held a match point against the American last time out, in Washington in 2024. (As with any elite competitor, Kokkinakis remembers the decisive point begrudgingly, a mishit from Korda he says that somehow landed on the line.)
Given his 2025, Kokkinakis will be hard pressed to emerge the winner against Korda but it is not inconceivable. The man from Brighton, a former Scotch College student, commands a vast and partisan support at The Drive and counts his 2022 title triumph here as his career highlight. The atmosphere when he plays at Adelaide Memorial Drive is one-eyed and heady and will undoubtedly galvanise him.
A training session against the French left-hander Ugo Humbert on centre court last Friday offered an insight, and hope.
The stands empty save for workers putting the final touches to what has become an immaculate sporting arena, Kokkinakis hit well and true but within himself. A couple of times he unleashed his trademark forehand and the building blocks of a player who has been world number 65 clearly remain.
It is not just his ability that makes him popular. He has the game to compete with the best – he beat this tournament’s other crowd pleaser and former Australian Open runner-up, Stefanos Tsitsipas, at the 2024 US Open – and it is difficult not to feel aghast at his poor fortune with injuries.
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There were no fans watching on Friday but late on, three tournament staffers appeared at the corner of the court just as Kokkinakis arrowed a serve, unknowingly, straight at them. He apologised immediately and as the session ended a woman seemingly with a TV crew jumped up to request a selfie and he obliged in a flash.
Such basics count. His media interviews are honest and unfiltered (“I’ll be sh***ing myself,” he gushed when asked if he’d be nervous before tonight’s match) and his eye contact is absolute always. There is no PR caveat when he speaks and what you see is what you get. You can have a conversation and that feeling of normality and goodwill is what every supporter in the crowd tonight will sense too.
It could be easy almost, and wrong, to miss the quality of this Adelaide International amid the hype of next week’s Australian Open. The men’s ATP 250 tournament has a sterling field but the women’s WTA 500 tournament has a player pool arguably the best anywhere outside Melbourne this summer.
Headed by defending Adelaide and Australian Open champion Madison Keys, it also boasts four players in world top 10 and, somewhat improbably in Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro, two daughters of American billionaires. And outstanding players both.
Since the Adelaide tournament was rebranded in 2020, it has been compelling for any player looking to win the big one in Melbourne. Ash Barty, Novak Djokovic and (last year) Keys have all won here and doubled up as singles winners at the Australian Open a few weeks later.
And the future is here too. The Gold Coast’s Emerson Jones – at 17-years-old still young enough to enter junior tournaments – helped host the women’s singles draw on Saturday and pulled herself out of the hat to face Navarro in round one.
Jones is small and slight, a whirlwind of energy forever on the tips of her toes, aggression and movement her forte. A good start by the world ranked 147 player in today’s opening (11am) match and Navarro will need to recalibrate quickly or an unexpected exit awaits.
It all promises a first class week indeed.
Richard Llewelyn Evans is an Adelaide-based sports writer who has covered global tennis for the past three decades. His people -focused stories can be found at A Sporting Soul | Richard Llewelyn Evans.
The Adelaide International
The Adelaide International, a combined WTA 500 and ATP 250 tournament, will see some of the world’s best tennis players competing for a total prize pool of $2.5 million and world ranking points.
Australians competing include Maya Joint, Emerson Jones, Daria Kasatkina and Ajla Tomljanovic, Alexei Popyrin and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Three of the of the world’s top 10 women will star in the women’s competition, including returning champion Madison Keys, Mirra Andreeva and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
While the strong ATP 250 field features top 20 men’s players Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Tommy Paul.
