Thanasi Kokkinakis has been forced into the unwanted move of undergoing surgery on his troublesome pec in the hope it will end the “mental and physical torture” he’s been suffering. The news came to light amid another massive blow for Jannik Sinner, with the Laureus Academy revoking his nomination for World Sportsman of the Year due to his three-month ban.

Kokkinakis has been struggling with the pec injury for years, and flagged at the Australian Open that he’d probably need to undergo surgery. He had to calls it quits during his doubles match with Nick Kyrgios at Melbourne Park last month, but delayed the surgery to travel with Australia’s Davis Cup team for their tie with Sweden.

On Thursday night he posted a photograph on social media showing him in hospital after the procedure, admitting he was facing his “toughest challenge”. He wrote: “Been struggling for a little while with this…I’ve been trying to find the answers to an ongoing pec injury that I haven’t been able to fix. Let’s see how this goes. Thank you for all your ongoing support.”

Thanasi Kokkinakis’ ongoing injury nightmare

Fellow tennis players Max Purcell, Matt Ebden and Denis Shapovalov were among the many to send him well-wishes. Speaking at the Australian Open, the 28-year-old opened up on the nightmare he’d been enduring for years.

“There’s no guarantees with surgery,” he said. “One thing is for sure: I can’t keep doing what I’m doing. It’s mental torture and physical torture. There’s a tear, for sure. I’m playing with a crazy amount of scar tissue in there. It’s something that every time I show a physio or a doctor or something, they’re taken back by it.

“I’ve tried to sort it out for years manually, without surgery, just trying to do what I can. It’s the reason why I can’t back up big matches. My whole body is fine. It’s just the same injury that I worked so hard on to try to get right. I still can’t do it. That’s the thing holding me back.”

He revealed a previous surgery didn’t fix the problem and took way longer to recover from. “I got told my shoulder surgery was going to be ready, I’d be healed up in three months,” he added. “Ended up taking me a year and a half to get back.”

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Jannik Sinner stripped of Laureus award nomination

Meanwhile, Sinner received some more unwanted news on Thursday night when his nomination at the Laureus World Sport Awards was taken away. The Italian World No.1 accepted a three-month ban earlier in February after testing positive for anabolic agent clostebol last March.

The 23-year-old said the banned substance had entered his system after a member of his team applied a spray to his own finger and then massaged him without gloves. Sinner’s team cut a deal with the World Anti-Doping Agency for a three-month suspension, which will end on May 4 and means he won’t miss any grand slams.

But Laureus Academy Chairman Sean Fitzpatrick – a New Zealand rugby great – delivered some bad news to Sinner on Thursday night. “We have followed this case, the decisions of the relevant global bodies and – whist we note the extenuating circumstances involved – feel that the three-month ban renders the nomination ineligible,” he said. “Jannik and his team have been informed.”

The Laureus World Sports Awards have been presented since 2000, recognising individual and team achievements across every sport around the globe. Sinner enjoyed a brilliant year in 2024 despite the doping saga hanging over his head, winning eight titles altogether – including the Australian and US Opens and Davis Cup.

with AAP