8 Years And Many Injuries Later: Kokkinakis Reaches New Career-High In ATP Rankings

Tuesday, 17 October 2023 at 05:57

bySebastian Dahlman

Thanasi Kokkinakis had a really unique career trajectory as he emerged as a very good talent fairly early in his career but then battled injuries for many years with this year finally being a good one again.

We've known about Thanasi Kokkinakis for many years as he was part of the wave of young promising Australians coming into the sport some ten years ago. Alongside good friend Kyrgios and fellow Aussie Bernard Tomic, Kokkinakis looked like a player destined for greatness in the future.

It didn't quite work out that way, with injuries being mostly to blame. The Australian, who won the 2013 Wimbledon Boys' title with Kyrgios, reached 69th place in 2015, but since then, he has battled with injuries quite often.

Even legendary players like Roger Federer bemoaned his fate, but it's 2023, and Kokkinakis is healthy and playing pretty solid tennis. This is his best year in years, and the ranking kind of reflects that.

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He has a new career high as of today, number 68 in the world. It might not sound like much, but it's an important milestone for Kokkinakis as he hopes to have a couple of good years on the ATP Tour.

His previous career high happened 8 years ago and was world number 69, which just shows his unique trajectory in the sport. He was a 19-year-old rising through the ranks of tennis and then multiple injuries completely derailed his career.

Now, eight years later, as a 27-year-old, Kokkinakis secured a new career high for himself after a solid year. He's capable of far more, of course, but let's hope he remains healthy and everything else will fall in place.

Next year might be huge for him, so let's hope everything goes well and he remains healthy. He's motivated after experiencing a lot of winning this year.