![\"Thanasi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kokkinakis-adelaide-2026-iaau-graphic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Player Features
\n \u2018DJ Kokkinakis\u2019 talks time off Tour as he prepares to headline Adelaide\u2019s main stage<\/p>\n
Australian will face Korda in his first tour-level singles match for 12 months<\/p>\n
January 11, 2026<\/p>\n
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Albert Perez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Thanasi Kokkinakis practises on Saturday at the Adelaide International.
\n By Andy West<\/p>\n
Did 12 months away from the ATP Tour give Thanasi Kokkinakis the time he needed to discover his musical side? Well, sort of. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny. I bought some DJ decks pretty early and played those for a month or two,\u201d Kokkinakis told ATPTour.com this week in Adelaide, where he is continuing his comeback after recovering from surgery on his pectoral muscle. \u201cThen I forgot about that and got addicted to PlayStation, which I used to play. <\/p>\n
\u201cI played a lot of NBA2K. I get pretty competitive there. I get online, get on the headset, and when people talk some rubbish to me, I give a bit back! So that was one way of me trying to be competitive.\u201d <\/p>\n
From Ugo Humbert\u2019s dabbling on the piano<\/a> to Yannick Noah\u2019s pop career and Jannik Sinner\u2019s collaboration with renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli<\/a>, there is plenty of crossover history between the ATP Tour and the world of music. For his part, Kokkinakis does not think he will be making a similar move anytime soon. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a long way off [releasing a track], that\u2019s probably post-career, I think!,\u201d joked the 29-year-old. \u201cI learned the basic fundamentals, but then taking a step up, I didn\u2019t quite have the focus for it. We\u2019ll see. It\u2019s harder than I thought.\u201d <\/p>\n On Monday, Kokkinakis will step on court at his hometown tournament, the Adelaide International, to compete in a tour-level singles match for the first time since his January 2025 Australian Open exit to Jack Draper. His first-round clash with Sebastian Korda will be a milestone moment for a player who has endured a testing 12 months. <\/p>\n Last February, Kokkinakis underwent a radical surgery \u2014 rarely if ever carried out on a tennis player \u2014 after years of managing damaged tissue in his right pectoral muscle. As the ATP Tour moved on from Australia and carried on around the globe for the rest of the 2025 season, Kokkinakis stayed in Melbourne to embark on a rehab programme that did not guarantee any positive results. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely tricky. You get itchy feet a little bit, being in the same place,\u201d said the former No. 65 in the PIF ATP Rankings, who won his only tour-level title so far in Adelaide in 2022. \u201cObviously it\u2019s different being home [in Adelaide], which is okay, but if you\u2019re in another place for longer, when you\u2019re used to only being there for one or max two weeks when you\u2019re on Tour, [it’s hard]. <\/p>\n \u201cI tried to stay busy with a lot of things. I did some commentary, a lot of sponsor stuff, so I was trying to stay active and stay busy. And then also my rehab and trying to get that right. That\u2019s a full-time job as much as anything, so I was just trying to get myself back to a point where I could even be in the draw for this tournament and give myself a chance.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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