Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis withdrew from the Adelaide International on January 14 due to a right shoulder injury, handing his opponent Valentin Vacherot a walkover. As a result, the 2025 Shanghai champion, Vacherot, advances to the quarter-finals. The Monegasque player will next face either top seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the next round.
Kokkinakis made his highly anticipated return to singles action on January 12 evening, after nearly 12 months away following surgery to address a long-standing pectoral problem. The home favourite suffered a flare-up of his shoulder injury but defied the pain to secure a gallant victory in his first singles match in almost a year at the Adelaide International.
In his first singles outing since January 15 last year, the South Australian played through pain to finish his comeback match, battling past Sebastian Korda in a final-set tie-break, but visibly struggled with his right shoulder throughout the match.
“It’s tough. Obviously my right arm caused by serving has plagued me my whole career. There’s a lot of what ifs, especially in my mind, if I wasn’t struggling with that. I know little niggles are normal here and there, but I feel like kind of what I’ve gone through is a little bit out of the normal,” Kokkinakis said after his match.
