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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 15, 2019

Thanasi Kokkinakis

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

T. DANIEL/T. Kokkinakis

5-7, 4-2 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Must be pretty gutted, another retirement.
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, it's not great. Again, especially after the satisfying feeling of qualifying, doing it the hard way a little bit, felt like my tennis was in a really good spot. So, yeah, I came in with a little bit of a ^ cloud, but it just started getting way worse during the match. Got to a point where it was affecting me, coming down my arm, just wasn't great.

Yeah, it's tough. Especially just the atmosphere here is so good. I love playing in front of those guys. I felt like I was actually playing pretty good tennis. I just couldn't serve or hit a hard ball.

Q. Is it a case of needing more surgery?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: No, it's not a surgery thing. Just a bit unfortunate timing. The shoulder itself is fine, which is what I had surgery on. This thing just needs a lot of rest. When I rest, I need some rehab.

Just unfortunate timing. Obviously playing three matches in quallies probably wasn't ideal with it. Kind of managing it through Brisbane, as well.

But, yeah, it got to a point where, yeah, it was unplayable to an extent.

Q. Are you frustrated now that you did have to do the quallies, even more, after finding that the excessive play is partly to blame?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yes and no. I was pretty proud that I quallied. I was happy with how I dug deep, had a bit of pressure on me, I felt. I did that. Probably was supposed to beat the players I did.

But first time qualifying for a Grand Slam. I think it's really hard to do. So I was really proud of that. But also, yeah, maybe if I had gotten straight in, I would have had a bit more time to rest and recover and be 100% for my first-round match.

But I just got to make sure in the future I don't need to rely on a wild card or anything like that. Get my ranking up. I'll have a good year hopefully this year and I won't need any of that or go through quallies.

Q. You mentioned there was a bit of stuff going on. What did you make of what Bernard had to say last night?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I don't really want to answer that stuff right now. I'm just pissed off I lost tonight, retired. Yeah, that's all I'm saying for that.

Q. Mentally, what is the toughest thing about having to constantly monitor your body?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: It's just the stop-start I guess. Every time I feel like I'm getting a bit of momentum, something seems to happen. Yeah, I don't know. I just got to keep putting myself in positions, keep getting my body stronger. I'm trying to look at it as a process. But, geez, it gets tough. Gets really tough every time I have to retire like that. That's the most pain I've ever played in during a match, I think.

Yeah, it's just the constant stop-starting, as well. The timing of it. The last four years I played here, I missed the first two years, last two years I injured myself in the match. This year, didn't feel good at all.

Yeah, it's annoying, especially missing the Aussie slam, not getting ready for that one.

Q. Do you support Lleyton remaining at Davis Cup captain?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I'm not answering that.

Q. Totally different subject, you might like that. A story on Serena, she's been hitting with a lot more ATP guys. You were sort of the first one.
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: At the academy.

Q. What has that experience been like? And if practicing with women, more and more guys are doing it, even at this tournament, is it viable for ATP players?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Yeah, I don't know. I don't see why not. She hits real well. She's so strong on the ball. Yeah, I mean, I was expecting her to be good. We didn't play any points or anything like that. We just hit. Patrick asked me. I said, Yeah, sure, in France. She knew a lot more about me than I thought. She's super nice, super bubbly. Hopefully she does well here. I don't see why not.

Q. What is so impressive?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: She's so strong, so strong on the ball. When I thought I hit some good shots that even some male players might even struggle with, she took it on the rise, handled it pretty well. It's okay. It's tough (smiling).

Q. Andy Murray tends to, with the younger players, gets along well with them. Do you have any Andy Murray anecdotes you can share with us?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: I love that dude. He's super nice. I remember before, really young, watching him on TV. This guy looks miserable all the time on court. Then when I started to progress onto the tour, play a few more matches, he's probably the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He went out of his way to reach out to me, my game, just in general. He's real honest, really real.

When I was playing matches in Hopman Cup last year, he'd send me massive paragraphs about things he thinks I should do on court, what could help me, stuff like that. Really genuine. Good guy. Hopefully he doesn't retire too soon, because, yeah, I love having him around.

Q. We spoke last week, were talking about how much goodwill there is out for you when you have a positive result. For your fans and for you, for the people who follow you, do you think there's a time, and how far down the track do you think it will be when there's no baggage going on about Australian men's tennis? What will it take for that point to be reached?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Good question. I think just good results really. Winning cures a lot of things. Yeah, I think the more we get older, the more everyone develops, we just focus about more on the product that's on the court. There's always going to be stories and headlines out there. At the end of the day, it really doesn't mean anything. You just got to try to play good tennis, stay healthy, compete well, stay out of trouble.

Q. Do the headlines stop you from playing the best tennis you could play? Do you want those individuals to stop creating headlines?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Sometimes yes; sometimes no. Sometimes you can take it differently. Sometimes you can take it as fuel. It can fire you up.

I think I play some of my best tennis like that when I feel I have a point to prove or something like that. Everyone takes it differently.

For me, you could try to block everything out, all the outside noise. You got an opponent, he's just worried about beating you. You got to try to think the same way.

Q. With the wild card situation, did you want to say anything about that? Were you disappointed or happy to accept it?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: Of course, I was disappointed. I thought I would have gotten one. When I got the call that I wasn't going to get one, my attention had to shift.

Again, I used it to fire me up a little bit and work my way through quallies. I wish I came through quallies unscathed. But it was a good little feather in my cap to qualify for a slam, especially the home slam. Yeah, hopefully I'm not in that position too many more times. Hopefully I can have a good year and go back to where I belong so I won't need to be qualifying for slams.

Q. Do you think you deserved it, given what you've done in the past?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: That's for them to decide. I felt like I did. Again, I just got to not even be in that conversation next time. I just got to not worry about it, have a good year. If I stay healthy, I'm not in this position 12 months on.

Q. Did you feel that your performance on court today was in any way negatively impacted by things said last night?
THANASI KOKKINAKIS: No. I don't know, man. Not at all. I actually felt like I was playing pretty good. It's just my pec was a bit munted.

Apart from that, it didn't affect me at all, at all. Off the ground, I felt great.

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