{"id":486938,"date":"2026-01-12T12:02:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=486938"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:21:16","slug":"kokkinakis-wins-long-awaited-return-despite-being-trouble-by-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=486938","title":{"rendered":"Kokkinakis wins long-awaited return despite being trouble by injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanasi Kokkinakis<\/a> has battled through injury issues to pull off a brilliant victory in his long-awaited return to singles tennis at the Adelaide International<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Australian looked almost ready to retire injured part way through Monday night's clash with Sebastian Korda, who pushed the local hero to a third-set tie-breaker.<\/p>\n

"Oh man, it's been a rough 12 months but (this) just makes it all worth it," Kokkinakis said in his on-court interview.<\/p>\n

Watch the Adelaide International and Australian Open qualifying\ufeff live and free on <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"I had my eye on this \u2026 I knew I'd come to a packed crowd and everyone cheering, so it was incredible, thank you so much, I love it here."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kokkinakis won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).<\/p>\n

Four years after winning the Adelaide International, Kokkinakis said he had "worked so hard to even give myself a chance to get back on this court" and admitted he almost didn't finish Monday night's match.<\/p>\n

The Adelaide-born 29-year-old was leading 3-0 in the second set when he called for medical attention.<\/p>\n

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He had his right sleeve rolled up and was clutching at his shoulder \ufeffwith his pain obvious.<\/p>\n

"Second set I hit a serve and didn't feel great, I was talking to my team every two minutes, (about) whether I should stop," Kokkinakis said post-match.<\/p>\n

"I felt like even if I win, at what cost?<\/p>\n

"But, I don't know, I always try to win, and especially here in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if i can go any further but I love it here so I'm trying my best."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The medical trainer came on to the court as replays showed \ufeffthe injury happening in the second game of the second set after serving an ace.<\/p>\n

"He grabbed at his shoulder and looked over at his team, let's hope this isn't \ufeffserious," caller Peter Psaltis said on Nine.<\/p>\n

John Millman noted the ace was \ufeffout wide and landed shorter in the court, which meant he had full extension.<\/p>\n

"Which is where you put the shoulder under the most amount of pressure," he said.<\/p>\n

Kokkinakis received massaging on the shoulder, with close-up footage showing a scar from previous issues.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Following the medical timeout, Kokkinakis returned and broke the serve of Korda.<\/p>\n

The trainer returned at 4-1 for a quick consultation before the set was taken at 6-3. The 29-year-old won with an ace and immediately grimaced before heading to the dressing room.<\/p>\n

Before facing Monaco's Valentin Vacherot in the second round, Kokkinakis will have a rest day on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

"We are so far away from the courts tomorrow," he said.<\/p>\n

"I'm going to be put on ice tomorrow, try and take the strongest painkillers, see as many physios as I can and hopefully I can come again on this court and give it a crack."<\/p>\n

His parting message to the adoring home crowd: "I'm doing my best."<\/p>\n

\ufeffKokkinakis' last singles match was in round two at the Australian Open last year when he lost in five sets to Jack Draper.<\/p>\n

What followed from that was radical pectoral reattachment surgery<\/a> for an injury that's plagued him for the majority of his career. \ufeff<\/p>\n

His return came in two doubles matches \ufeffwith Nick Kyrgios at the Brisbane International on January 4 and 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanasi Kokkinakis has battled through injury issues to pull off a brilliant victory in his long-awaited return to singles tennis at the Adelaide International. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":486940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486938"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486944,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486938\/revisions\/486944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/486940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}