Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis will be back on the Wimbledon stage after being drawn against No 10 seed Alexander Bublik, with his appearance at the All England Club representing one of the most remarkable comebacks in the game\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis became a Grand Slam champion when he lifted the Australian Open doubles title with his pal Nick Kyrgios back in January 2022 and he also won his first ATP Tour singles title in the same month as he lifted the silverware in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Yet injuries have constantly disrupted his progress throughout his career and a pectoral problem threatened to bring his career to an end for a player who toasted his 30th birthday in April.<\/p>\n
It was after a five-set defeat against Britain\u2019s Jack Draper that Kokkinakis accepted his career had reached a crossroads, with the medical intervention he turned as radical as it could get.<\/p>\n
He underwent surgery in February 2025, with \u201cAchilles of a deceased person\u201d attached to his pectoral muscle in what was a final attempt to solve his injury woes.<\/p>\n
Nick Kyrgios news: \u2018This one ranks No 1\u2019 and \u2018doing it with Kokk is insane,\u2019 says Grand Slam doubles winner<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka & Coco Gauff speak out on Serena Williams\u2019 Wimbledon comeback<\/a><\/p>\n There was uncertainty whether it would work or if he could ever play tennis again, but Kokkinakis won a round at the French Open last month amid emotional scenes and now he is relishing his Wimbledon return.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to Tennis365 at The Boodles exhibition event at Stoke Park, Kokkinakis outlined his journey back to Wimbledon.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a peck problem since 2019 and I\u2019ve been kind of trying to play through and manage it, but backing up matches was the tricky part,\u201d he told Tennis365.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I hit a point in 2025 where I played a couple of matches in Adelaide when I said to myself, okay, I\u2019ve got to do something.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I knew before I played the Australian Open last year, after I played Roman Safiullin and Jack Draper, I knew that I\u2019d have to try something and go in for a surgery because if I didn\u2019t, that was career over for me.<\/p>\n \u201cI just needed to try everything to see if I could get back playing at a decent level. So yeah, going into the Draper match, I knew that whatever happened, that was probably my last match win or lose because I wouldn\u2019t have been able to play the next one anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I had a surgery and it\u2019s been a year and a half or so since then, and trying to come back and find my feet and adjust to kind of a new arm and see what happens.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially, this all came down to some bad physio advice I got a long time ago and I kept trying to play through and make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n No one has tried to play professional tennis after an operation like this, but Kokkinakis is eager to explore his boundaries.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2029It\u2019s very rare in general to have surgery like this and for a tennis player, no one has tried it,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a bunch of doctors and a few didn\u2019t want to operate on it. They thought it would be too risky.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in a bit of a hole in my career and I had to try something. So let\u2019s see what happens next and what I\u2019ve got left. I wanted to try and give myself 12 months since coming back and playing and see how I feel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough after the surgery. It was a long way back. We are here now, so let\u2019s see where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Kokkinakis admits every match he plays now feels like a bonus, with his excitement ahead of his Wimbledon return palpable.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to got back to Wimbledon,\u201d he added. \u201cI had a big win there a couple of years ago against Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets and that was special. I\u2019d love to have a moment like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n The back story behind some of the players competing at Wimbledon this year highlights the passion they have to get onto the courts, with few fighting harder than Kokkinakis to continue his dream.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are \u2018as good as the Big 3\u2019, claims Grand Slam champion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Why Thanasi Kokkinakis\u2019 Wimbledon comeback may be the most remarkable of them all<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis will be back on the Wimbledon stage after being drawn against No 10 seed Alexander Bublik, with his appearance at the All England Club representing one of the most remarkable comebacks in the game\u2019s recent history. Kokkinakis became a Grand Slam champion when he lifted the Australian Open doubles title with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}