‘My arm isn’t quite ready’: Star withdraws on path back from surgery involving dead person’s ligament

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Thanasi Kokkinakis appears unlikely to compete at this year’s Australian Open – at least in singles – after pulling out of the Adelaide International due to a right shoulder injury.

Kokkinakis is on the comeback trail from revolutionary pectoral reattachment surgery, including the use of an Achilles tendon graft from a dead person.

But the 29-year-old experienced renewed shoulder pain midway through his emotional three-set triumph over American Seb Korda on Monday night, which eventually caused him to withdraw before his second-round match on Wednesday.

“Very sad to have to pull out of my favourite event,” Kokkinakis posted on social media.

“Unfortunately, my arm isn’t quite ready yet after missing a year off. The support is always incredible, and I love playing here.”

Kokkinakis is scheduled to play doubles at the Australian Open with Nick Kyrgios, who announced last week he was not physically ready to contest the singles draw in a grand slam tournament.

Kokkinakis previously stated that serving only once every four games was more manageable in his current condition, and he used the Adelaide tournament as a gauge on whether he was ready to compete at Melbourne Park.

One Australian who will not feature in the Australian Open main draw is former world No.17 Bernard Tomic, whose singles qualifying bid ended in a 6-4, 6-2 second-round defeat to Brit Arthur Fery in 68 minutes.

Tomic, 33, spoke after his win on Monday about how he was striving to return to the top 100, but was no match for Fery from the outset. He offered only a “not today” to journalists afterwards.

However, it was a more successful day for countryman Dane Sweeny, who is just one victory away from qualifying for his home major for the second time in three years. The world No.182 beat Swiss opponent Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-4 to set up a clash with Italian veteran Stefano Travaglia.

Australian doubles specialist Storm Hunter is also into final-round qualifying after eliminating No.27 seed Lola Radivojevic 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).

Hunter, who reached the round of 32 two years ago, will need to overcome American 11th seed Taylor Townsend to contest the main draw for a seventh time.

But James McCabe, who qualified for Wimbledon last year, lost a hard-fought battle with emerging Norwegian teenager Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, going down 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) in two-and-a-half hours. Olivia Gadecki, Tina Smith and Lizette Cabrera also bowed out of contention.

The grand slam finalist that Cash says should be an example for Demon

Australian tennis great Pat Cash rates Alex de Minaur as good a chance of making this year’s Australian Open final as anyone not named Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz.

The 1987 Wimbledon champion and two-time Australian Open finalist used triple grand slam runner-up Casper Ruud as an example of what was possible for world No.6 de Minaur, who reached the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park for the first time last year.

Cash’s comments come as de Minaur said on Wednesday that he dreamt of winning his home grand slam and ending Australia’s 50-year title drought since Mark Edmondson’s shock win in 1976.

No Australian man has made the Australian Open final since Lleyton Hewitt – who is part of “Team Demon” – lost in four sets to Russia’s Marat Safin.

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“Is Ruud any better than de Minaur? No, absolutely not,” Cash told this masthead.

“There’s one [Alcaraz] and two [Sinner], and then there’s the rest. Demon is in the rest of the group. Before, there was one and two, and then there were a handful of others, and then there was Demon. But Demon’s joined that next group now.

“Sinner and Alcaraz, let’s take them aside. Two players don’t make up a semi-final. You need four, right?

“Demon’s fallen at the hurdle of the quarter-finals [six times], but you’ve got to keep knocking on the door. There’s a bunch of them who will be looking for a semi-final berth somewhere along the line.”

Cash said de Minaur was the type of player you wanted to have fighting for your life, and admired how he had continued to develop his game.

“His speed, determination and mental focus are exceptional,” Cash said.

“His backhand is very good, too, his forehand is good as well, and he volleys as well as anybody on the circuit. If I was his coach, I would have tweaked his serve. It’s got to do with rotation. I’m a bit of a serve geek.”

De Minaur lost his first match of the year at the United Cup to the aforementioned Ruud, but responded with contrasting, but equally impressive, victories over Czechia’s Jakub Mensik and Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

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“I feel good. I feel excited. Obviously, it is getting closer and closer until the AO starts, and I’m hitting the ball great, and the body’s feeling good,” de Minaur said.

“I’m excited for what’s hopefully going to be a long time here in Melbourne.

“The United Cup was great. I was able to play some competitive matches, so I’m very happy with the way I bounced back after my opening match, and was able to find my stride and find my game, and ultimately beat two very high-quality opponents.”

De Minaur will hope not to have two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner on his side of the draw, given he has not beaten the Italian superstar in 13 attempts, but does not plan to watch Thursday’s draw ceremony.

“I’ve never been one to look at the draw. I don’t want to see it being made,” he said.

“I will get my team to let me know once it’s done, who I play in the first round, and that’s basically all I want to know because that’s all that matters to me.

“Then, I’m sure, we’ll go through press conferences, and I’ll be told my whole projected draw, from the very first match to the last, but I’ll do my best to stay in the moment and take it slowly.”

Some of Australia’s best players have struggled to deal with the expectation of being a contender at a home grand slam, but de Minaur said he was handling that pressure well.

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“I’m excited to play here in Australia. To this point, I don’t associate playing here in Australia as me getting nervous,” he said.

“I associate it as just being excited to play in front of my home crowd. I don’t get the chance to do that often. So, to be able to start the year here is quite exciting for me, and I’m really looking forward to it.

“There’s nothing I would want to do more than to play well in Australia and give the amazing crowd something to cheer for ... I’ve been dreaming since I was a little kid about going deep and winning this tournament.”

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