Thanasi Kokkinakis talks Tour break as he prepares to rock Adelaide’s main stage | ATP Tour

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‘DJ Kokkinakis’ talks about his break from Tour as he prepares to headline Adelaide’s main stage

The Australian will face Korda in his first tour-level match for 12 months

January 11, 2026

Did 12 months away from the ATP Tour give Thanasi Kokkinakis the time he needed to find his musical side? Well, kind of.

“It’s funny. I bought DJ decks very early and played those for a month or two,” Kokkinakis told ATPTour.com this week in Adelaide, where he continues his comeback from surgery on his shoulder. “Then I forgot that I was addicted to the PlayStation that I used to play.

“I played a lot of NBA2K. I get very competitive there. I go online, I go into a headset, and when people talk trash to me, I give them back a little bit! So that was one of my ways to try to be competitive.”

From Ugo Humbert’s piano playing to Yannick Noah’s pop work and Jannik Sinner’s collaboration with the legendary Andrea Bocelli, there is a lot of history between the ATP Tour and the world of music. Kokkinakis, on the other hand, doesn’t think he’ll make a similar move anytime soon.

“I’m far away [releasing a track]that’s probably an after-service job, I think!,” joked the 29-year-old. “I learned the basics, but after I took action, I didn’t focus on it. We will see. It’s harder than I thought.”

On Monday, Kokkinakis will take to the court at his home tournament, the Adelaide International, to compete in a tour-level match for the first time since his January 2025 Australian Open exit to Jack Draper. His first round clash with Sebastian Korda will be a historic moment for a player who has endured a testing 12 months.

Last February, Kokkinakis underwent radical surgery – a rare surgery for a tennis player – after years of managing damaged tissue in his right wing. With the ATP Tour leaving Australia and continuing around the world for the entire 2025 season, Kokkinakis stayed in Melbourne to begin a rehab program that did not guarantee any positive results.

“It’s really tricky. You get a little itchy feet, you’re in the same place,” said the former No. 65 in the PIF ATP Rankings, who won his only tour-level title so far in Adelaide in 2022. “Obviously it’s different being at home. [in Adelaide]ok, but if you are in another place for a long time, when you are used to being there for one week or maximum one week if you are on Tour, [it’s hard].

“I tried to stay busy with a lot of things. I was doing commentary, a lot of sponsor stuff, so I was trying to stay busy and stay busy. And then I rehab and try to fix that. That’s a full-time job like anything, so I was trying to get myself back to a place where I couldn’t even be on the line for this tournament and give myself a chance.”

While not being able to compete was naturally troubling, Kokkinakis hasn’t completely ruled out continuing in tennis in 2025.

“[I watched tennis] here and there. I wasn’t afraid of it, but I didn’t follow it closely all the time,” he says, “I followed basketball a lot. I love my NBA, but if tennis was on, and it was a sport I liked, I would watch it. But I wasn’t watching everything that was happening.

“[I spoke to friends on Tour] slowly. Especially the Aussies, if they have a good result or something like that, I can send them a message. Draper has also reached out, and it’s clear that he’s going through a tough time right now. So he was fine… But I wasn’t texting people all the time. It was mainly Aussies. ”

Kokkinakis has high hopes as he prepares for his return match against Korda, who he was due to meet in the quarter-finals in Adelaide last year before pulling out due to injury. However, he is also honest about the risk he took with his surgery, where he was given an Achilles allograft to try to attach the pectoral muscle to his shoulder.

“Just coming back and getting to this point is not something I was sure of,” said Kokkinakis, who competed twice last week at the Brisbane International presented by ANZ, alongside Nick Kyrgios. “Now I don’t know if I can go through a game, or if I can go through a few games, I really don’t know, because I haven’t played. I did everything smartly to give myself a chance to be here and that alone is a win.

“To be able to walk out on the court knowing that I’ve put in a lot of work and now I’m praying that my shoulder is going to be OK, that makes it worthwhile. The next thing is how I support and where I go from here. [it is good] just being here and even playing practice sets, seeing certain crowds and hearing the cheers, and just coming back feeling those feelings and that buzz. Seeing other cameras on me while playing tennis is a change. ”