'I couldn't bear it': Inside Thanasi Kokkinakis's painful road to recovery after rare chest surgery

In tennis, names flicker in and out like quick flashes on a scoreboard. Some linger, others vanish until one day you realise you have not seen them in months and wonder where they may have gone. Thanasi Kokkinakis, once Australia’s brash, fearless talent, has been one of those disappearing acts. After a heroic, but unfortunate five-set 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 loss against Jack Draper at the Australian Open 2025, the 29-year-old Adelaide native vanished from the tour. For fans, it was silence, but for Kokkinakis, it was survival.

Surgery struggles

Thanks to a recent podcast and the reporting of Ubitennis, we now understand the story behind the absence, a tale of surgical audacity, stubborn willpower, and years of silent struggle. "It’s a risk I decided to take, knowing that perhaps I wouldn’t have another opportunity," Kokkinakis explained, recounting his latest chest surgery.

"No tennis player had ever undergone this type of surgery, so it was a very risky gamble. The complicated part, in a case like this, is that you can’t compare yourself to anyone else, so you can only hope. It was an operation more unique than rare, but I refused to continue doing the same as before, which was playing in pain. This is what I had to endure in recent years, so I wanted to take a risk to see how it would go." the Australian clarified.

For years, Kokkinakis had been battling a torn pectoral muscle, a condition that made consecutive matches nearly impossible, which he talked about, saying:

"I played with a torn chest for much of the last four or five years. If I tried to win a long match, a best-of-five set match, or when I tried to play two matches in a row, my arm would swell and I couldn’t play anymore. If I chose to continue, by sheer inertia of things, I would end up retiring in the end. I couldn’t bear it anymore, I didn’t want to go through winning a match and then having to retire. I wanted to try something new to see if the situation could improve, but the reality is that they removed a lot of scar tissue and cut half of my right pectoral. They grafted part of the Achilles tendon from a deceased donor to connect my torn pectoral to the shoulder."

Countdown for his comeback

Despite his body being battered and surgeries piling up, Kokkinakis has not lost his ambition. Not yet 30, he counts the days until he can return to the Australian tour.

The former Grand Slam men's doubles champion said, "Now I’m feeling good, I returned to the courts a couple of weeks ago, started training seriously, and my groundstrokes were almost at 100%. The most complicated part is the serve, that’s what I’m working on the most to recover it, we’ll see. My goal is to return to the circuit in 2026, I’m enjoying this moment, the restart from scratch, playing without pain, something I could almost never do in my career. Mentally I’m fine, although if I couldn’t return by early 2026, in the middle of the Australian tour, it would be very difficult to digest.".

All in all, Kokkinakis’ story is a study in contrasts: flashes of brilliance punctuated by long absences, moments of triumph shadowed by the threat of collapse. One day, Kokkinakis is trading blows with the world’s best; the next, he is navigating an unprecedented surgery and learning to swing again without pain.

Nevertheless, each hit without discomfort for Kokkinakis is a victory in itself, each day of training a step toward a future that once seemed uncertain. Australian fans, however, will have to wait until the 2026 Australian Open, but for fans and fellow players alike, his comeback will be worth the wait.