Thanasi Kokkinakis has never shied away from revealing the physical burden his career has borne due to injuries. However, this week he revealed it all. During an interview, the Australian pulled up his sleeve and showed a large scar that extended down his chest – the scar of a pectoral injury that has quietly transformed how he plays the game now. 

“I felt something in my chest during the final stage of the Australian Open qualifiers in 2019,” he said while speaking to Punto de Break. “They told me it might be a strain. In the next match, I won the first set somehow. I went to the locker room and saw something sticking out of my chest.”

The injury dates back to the 2019 Australian Open qualifying rounds, and Kokkinakis described the moment it happened in vivid detail. “The muscle had completely retracted and burst. Right now, I only have half of my pectoral. The surgery they did on me had never been done before in tennis,” he explained.

Kokkinakis revealed that longer matches still bring a strange and painful side effect. “When I played, if the match went long, a ball of scar tissue would form, it would fill with blood, and my chest would swell up. It’s like having a golf ball in my chest,” he said. It is a condition he now manages match by match, aware that pushing too hard on a shot could risk further damage, yet he has continued to compete at the highest level regardless.

Kokkinakis reached his career-high ranking of No. 65 in November 2023. Soon, the numbers collapsed, and he found himself outside the top 400 of the world at the start of the season. Currently, he is ranked at 460, with just five full matches under his belt on the singles front. He has withdrawn and retired mid-match from multiple tournaments due to his injury, but doesn’t quit playing the sport. 

That resilience has helped him to define a career that’s been plagued by injuries, but at the same time, it was not for nothing. He has delivered some incredible moments throughout his career, such as defeating Roger Federer at Miami and winning his first ATP title on home soil at Adelaide, as well as the Australian Open doubles title in 2022 with his close friend Nick Kyrgios.

Kokkinakis fights through pain for career-best Wimbledon doubles run

The battle took center stage again this month at Wimbledon, when Kokkinakis joined American Aleksandar Kovacevic in what proved to be his best doubles run of his career, aside from the 2022 Australian Open. Entering as alternates after the Cerundolo brothers withdrew, the pair knocked out three seeded teams, including 14th seeds Nikola Mektic and Austin Krajicek in the quarter-finals, before finally falling to top seeds and eventual runners-up Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in a tight two-tiebreak semifinal, 7-6(2), 7-6(8). 

His singles campaign was no exception, even though he lost. Kokkinakis pushed 10th seed Alexander Bublik to five sets in the first round, a match that could easily have gone his way against a higher-ranked opponent. At 30, Kokkinakis is now turning his focus towards the North American hard court swing and made it clear that doubles success is welcome, but not his main priority. 

“I definitely enjoy doubles. It’s not the focus of my game, anything on the doubles court is a bonus,” he said. “Singles is where I want to have goals and progress. I think doubles is great as far as titles go and going deep in Slams, but for me my focus is still singles.” 

With a first US Open appearance in sight in more than two years, Thanasi Kokkinakis refuses to agree that a half-torn pectoral muscle can stop him from achieving the goals he has set for himself.