Thanasi Kokkinakis has pointedly declined to pour more fuel on the raging Lleyton Hewitt firestorm after being forced out of the Australian Open in agony.
Kokkinakis lasted only a set and half of his first-round clash with Taro Daniel on Tuesday before succumbing to a pectoral muscle injury.
“It gets really tough every time I have to retire like that,” said the injury-cursed Kokkinakis.
“That’s the most pain I’ve ever played in during a match.”
But Kokkinakis said he did not expect the injury would require further surgery.
The focus then shifted inevitably to inflammatory claims 24 hours earlier from Bernard Tomic that he, Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios no longer wanted to play Davis Cup under Hewitt.
Despite being under Tennis Australia management, Kokkinakis turned down the opportunity to endorse Hewitt staying on as Australian Davis Cup captain, after Tomic called for him to quit.
“I’m not going to answer that,” he told reporters.
He also chose to neither endorse or deliberately distance himself from Tomic’s remarks.
“I don’t really want to answer that stuff right now,” said Kokkinakis.
“I’m just pissed off I lost tonight (and) retired.
“That’s all I’m saying for that.”
But he admitted to being disappointed that Hewitt and other senior TA officals had overlooked him for a prized wildcard for the opening major of the year.
Instead Kokkinakis was forced to battle through three rounds of qualifying to earn his spot in the main draw, with the lack of recovery time potentially contributing to his physical breakdown against Daniel.
“Of course, I was disappointed. I thought I would have got one,” said the 22-year-old.
“When I got the call that I wasn’t going to get one, my attention had to shift.
“I used it to fire me up a little bit and work my way through qualies; I wish I’d come through qualies unscathed.
“But it was a good little feather in my cap to qualify for a slam, especially the home slam.
“Hopefully I’m not in that position too many more times.”
Kokkinakis won the first set of Tuesday’s clash with Daniel 7-5 before calling a medical timeout early in the second set to receive treatment on his right pectoral muscle.
Clearly in duress, the Australian battled for another few games before finally calling a halt to the match with the Japanese counter-puncher leading 4-2 30-0 in the second set..
The forced retirement continued a wretched run for the talented Kokkinakis, who has long been hampered by serious shoulder and pectoral injuries.
He also suffered a cracked kneecap last April in a frustrating campaign where he managed just nine tour matches for three wins.
But among those those three victories was a win over Roger Federer at the World Tour Masters event in Miami – a tantalising reminder of just what Kokkinakis was capable of when not let down by his fragile body.
