Thanasi Kokkinakis has a dead man's Achilles attaching his pec to his shoulder, until recently needed a mate to floss his armpits after showering because he couldn't do it himself, and bears a surgery scar that looks for all the world like a shark bite.
The one-time Federer-slaying wunderkind of Australian tennis is now 30, doesn't know how the hell that happened, and concedes gravely: "My right arm isn't as functional as probably the average human…"
But guess what? The great survivor is back … and still believing.
At Roland Garros, where Kokkinakis has enjoyed so many of his fiercest duels, the popular Adelaide warrior will set out on Monday at the start of a 12-month odyssey which he accepts could be the last hurrah in a distinguished but luckless career.
