Thanasi Kokkinakis: "No player had attempted this operation" — the crazy gamble to save his career

Injured, operated on, isolated, but not defeated: Kokkinakis embarked on an extraordinary rehabilitation after an intervention that even surgeons feared.

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Jules Hypolite

le 04/12/2025 à 19h06

2 min to read

Kokkinakis

Thanasi Kokkinakis experienced a blank season, injured in the shoulder since his second-round loss at the Australian Open against Jack Draper.

The former Australian tennis hopeful had to undergo a "risky" operation, involving grafting part of his Achilles tendon to treat his shoulder problem, as he recounted to the media Today.

"No tennis player has undergone this operation before"

Without this operation that sidelined him for the rest of the season, Kokkinakis would likely have made the decision to end his career:

"The operation I underwent is risky; no tennis player had done it before. Some surgeons didn't want to operate, but I had to take my chance and grit my teeth if I wanted to still have an opportunity for the rest of my career.

This is the most difficult injury I've had so far, and it will also be my most complicated rehabilitation. I remain optimistic, I hope I made the right decision, but yes, it hasn't been easy.

When you talk to surgeons and tennis players and no one has ever seen this injury or performed an operation of this type in tennis, it's quite intimidating. But I knew I had to try, and I told myself: why not be the first?

(Without this operation), I could have played one match per week for the rest of my career, but in tennis, that's not possible: you need to be able to string matches together if you want to progress in your career or in the rankings."