Thanasi Kokkinakis doesn’t yet know the full cost of his courage.
But he knows it won’t be pretty.
‘I know what tomorrow is looking like for me – and I don’t love it,’ the Australian said after an extraordinary first-round win at the Adelaide International, during which he battled through a painful shoulder injury.
‘Fingers crossed, the anti-inflammatories work some wonders.’
Kokkinakis said the fresh injury put a dampener on victory in his first singles match in 362 days, which came against American Sebastian Korda, 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3) in his home city on Monday night.
The 29-year-old was making his singles comeback from what no tennis player has been through: having a dead person’s Achilles tendon surgically knotted between his right pectoral muscle and shoulder.
Thanasi Kokkinakis was in agony as he made a victorious comeback to singles at the Adelaide International (pictured)
The veteran had to call for the physio (pictured) as his shoulder gave him hell
Kokkinakis came from a set down to secure the win after having a dead person’s Achilles tendon surgically attached to his chest muscle and shoulder
Midway through the second set, Kokkinakis was in pure pain – again.
Asked if he would have retired if it wasn’t his home tournament, Kokkinakis replied: ‘I probably wouldn’t have played to start with.’
‘I had conversations with my team: I was like: “At what cost am I playing? Even if I get through this match, so what?”
‘I had the surgery so I could back-up matches and go through a tournament. But I’ll never really find out until I go through a long match and see where I’m at after.’
Kokkinakis said it was a different pain to the pectoral problems that had long plagued him.
‘I had a pec surgery, that was more muscle; this one is in my shoulder,’ he said.
‘I have had a shoulder surgery as well, but that was probably caused from the surgery I had to the pec.
‘So there’s a lot of niggles and a lot of things going on.’
The 29-year-old played doubles with his great mate Nick Kyrgios in Brisbane last week
Kokkinakis admitted he put his future health at risk by playing through the pain
Kokkinakis won not just the match, but the battle of mind over matter.
‘It was a mental effort, for sure,’ he said.
‘There was a lot of times I thought about stopping, and am I going to do more damage if I keep playing?
‘But it’s really hard to stop. Maybe for the sake of my body, it was smarter if I stop.
‘But playing your home tournament, the only title I have won in singles, it makes it really hard to just be like: ‘Yeah, I think I’ll stop here’.’
Kokkinakis was braced for a restless sleep, physically, ahead of determining if he was fit enough to play again in the second round on Wednesday.
But mentally, he would sleep well.
‘One thing that I feel like I’ve always given, especially playing in Australia more than anything, is just whatever I have, I’m emptying the tank,’ he said.
‘I’m always giving my best.
‘Maybe it has hurt my body in the past.
‘But that’s the only thing, when I go to bed at night I can kind of sleep a bit easier knowing I literally have tried and given everything I can.’
