Thanasi Kokkinakis was left seething and doubtful about his career after an old injury flared up during his Australian Open campaign, which came to an end against Great Britain’s top-ranked men’s player Jack Draper.

It also puts his doubles hopes with Nick Kyrgios in doubt.

In a five-set marathon that lasted four-and-a-half hours in front of a raucous crowd, 15th-seeded Draper won 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a stand-off that finished close to midnight.

While Kokkinakis said he did not mind losing as it was part of the sport, it was battling through a pectoral injury — which had persistently plagued his career — that was causing him mental and physical “torture”.

“Even if I won, I wouldn’t have been able to play the next match. I’m annoyed. I still had a chance to win,” Kokkinakis told reporters following his Australian Open exit.

“Yeah, I’m angry.”

Kokkinakis served for the match in the fourth set but could not hold. As the match wore on, so did the 28-year-old’s body.

He called a medical timeout in the third and fifth sets to receive treatment on the injury, which saw him withdraw from the Adelaide International last week.

It was a lingering issue, “definitely a tear”, Kokkinakis said, which he aggravated each time he won a couple of rounds in an event or played a long match.

“I just tried to tough it out [today]. I was touch-and-go again to play this week. Took a million painkillers to try and get through,” Kokkinakis said.

“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.

“I think it’s one of the big things stopping me from being able to reach my goals … essentially I can’t play back-to-back, intense matches no matter how much I train for it and try it.”

‘What I’m doing isn’t working’

This is the sixth time Kokkinakis has made the second round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open and the sixth time he’s failed to progress.

Kokkinakis said he now expected to take some time away from the sport and would speak with experts, as he had some serious decisions to make regarding his tennis career.

“As soon as I can clear my head and don’t want to punch a wall, [I’ll] try to work out what’s next,” Kokkinakis said.

“But it’s clear that what I’m doing isn’t working.”

He is scheduled to play doubles with Kyrgios later this tournament and was careful not to officially rule it out, but cast serious doubt over the idea.

Kokkinakis won the Australian Open men’s doubles title alongside Kyrgios in 2022. The duo became known as ‘Special K’ and would bring in rowdy crowds.

“I feel like I’m letting him down, letting people down,” he said.

“But I won’t be able to lift my arm tomorrow. So we’ll see. Unless we’re both playing with underarm serves, it’s looking pretty unlikely.”

Draper was gallant in front of a hostile crowd on Wednesday night. He also carried a recent injury into the match, admitting after his win he did not know if he would play at the Australian Open late last year.

“In the off-season, I was on the sidelines, not really playing and I didn’t know if I was going to be fit to come here,” Draper said of his hip injury.

As the night progressed, the mostly Australian audience would applaud Draper’s errors and cheer loudly between serves.

“This is what I play for. Since I was a young guy, I wanted to play in front of big crowds — and whether you guys were here for me or against me,” said Draper, who also gave credit to Kokkinakis.

“[But] It was a tough atmosphere to deal with this.

“It was a really tough match-up, but obviously he is an unbelievable player, someone who I really respect every time I play him. He brings his best tennis, and especially here in Australia, he’s so dangerous.”