Australian tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis makes shock confession about his sporting career following another knee injury: ‘I think this is me done’

Thanasi Kokkinakis recently made a shocking confession about his tennis career when he admitted he was thinking about giving it all up.

The 28-year-old Australian Open champion, who has been plagued by several career-ending injuries over the years, revealed in Stellar’s On Sunday’s edition he ‘thought about quitting a few times’.

Despite being earmarked for greatness at a young age and making a name for himself at several Opens, the professional athlete struggled to stay out of the hospital.

Kokkinakis nearly collapsed under the weight of expectations in his early years as he struggled to keep up with rising tennis champions like Nick Kyrgios.

“At that moment I thought it would be a smooth progression to the top 10 and competing for Grand Slam titles,” Kokkinakis recalls.

He went on to say that the reality he grew up with on the tennis court was far from what he dreamed it would be, claiming it was “so hard” to compete against “so many hungry people.”

Add to that his struggle to be competitive and his numerous injuries over the years, and Kokkinakis said he wondered if he could make it as a tennis champion.

“There were a few tournaments where I thought, ‘I think I’m done,’ because I felt like I was so far off the pace,” he admitted.

“I couldn’t see how I could find my way through it and make a living and I didn’t enjoy it because I wasn’t competitive. It was as low as it could get.”

Kokkinakis has experienced everything from abdominal and groin injuries to shoulder surgeries and back stress fractures, most recently a knee injury.

Earlier this year he underwent an MRI scan in London to determine the extent of the injury that ended his 2024 Wimbledon hopes.

The joy of his remarkable straight-set victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime at No. 17 in early July turned to misery less than 24 hours later in his second-round match against French qualifier Lucas Pouille.

Trailing at 2-6 7-5 4-2, Kokkinakis – a big man who has often talked about how cautious he feels with his movements on grass courts – slipped and twisted his left knee while trying to retrieve a forehand.

The tennis player fell over, clearly in pain, as former French No. 1 Pouille crossed the court to help tend to him.

The 28-year-old Australian Open champion, who has been plagued by several career-ending injuries over the years, revealed in Sunday’s edition of Stellar that he had “thought about it a few times”

Kokkinakis eventually went on for another match, but trailing 5–2 he staggered to the other side to tell Pouille he could not continue.

The day before the match, the Australian retweeted a post showing a video of cooked meat falling off a bone, accompanied by the caption “Thanasi Kokkinakis’ legs as he woke up this morning after playing 15 sets in four days,” referring to his five-set marathon victory over Auger-Aliassime, which lasted two days.

Kokkinakis added the word “accurate” with a tears of joy emoji.

‘It was a difficult match. It started well, but there was a strange kind of energy, it felt strange,” Kokkinakis said after his tournament ended.

The Australian had been disgruntled the day before after a troublemaker in the crowd had harassed him and Auger-Aliassime to continue playing after rain had made the surface treacherous.

Two weeks earlier, Kokkinakis suffered a similar fall at the Queen’s Club Championship on a wet track, causing a medial collateral ligament injury that kept him out of action for a week.

He had also sprained his troublesome left knee in a pre-Wimbledon Challenger tournament in nearby Surbiton two years ago, which cost him a month from the sport.

‘[Pouille] started playing good tennis and I tried to rally but slipped and hurt my knee,” Kokkinakis said.

‘I will check the severity after a few scans, but I know I have suffered a similar injury to the one at Queen’s Club. But it feels a lot worse, that’s my gut feeling.’

Kokkinakis planned to play a hard court tournament in Atlanta next.

“But now I have to have an MRI to see if that is possible or not,” said the world number 93.

Kokkinakis opened up in the most recent edition of Stellar magazine