The world's unluckiest tennis star, and possibly the most popular too, Kokkinakis is battling an ankle injury that has prevented him from even playing practice points.
"So it's hard to lie and just say I'm feeling great," he told AAP.
"It's been a really tough go since Cincinnati, a tough stretch the last couple of months, to be honest. Tennis-wise, just zero continuity.
"And it's weird with a protected ranking, you feel like you're playing on borrowed time a little bit. So I'm just trying to go into tournaments to give it a crack and do what I can.
"But my prep's been far from ideal and my goal is to get out there and not do damage to myself, so we'll see how we go.
"I'd love to get out there but I'm racing the clock."
Being underdone is not unusual for Kokkinakis, who has spent the past decade fighting endless injuries just to keep his stop-start career going.
The 30-year-old underwent surgery in early 2025 to have a deceased donor's Achilles tendon attached to his shoulder in one last-ditch effort to make it back.
But two weeks ago the cursed star twisted his ankle in Cincinnati and now accepts he might be close to done.
Having slipped to No.412 in the world, the one-time Roger Federer slayer is using the fifth of nine available injury-protected rankings in New York.
"Yeah, I've wasted it just to give myself a chance," Kokkinakis said.
"But I can't use the same grand slam twice for a protected ranking, so I thought, honestly, there's no guarantees I'll play another US Open.
"So I just wanted to give myself a chance. I tried to get on court to practice, didn't feel great, so I'm going to try and take every day as a rest day until until the match and probably the day before I'll try and jab myself up with some painkillers and see what I can do."
Scheduled to play either Monday or Tuesday, Kokkinakis hasn't received any luck in the draw either.
He plays 12th seed Rafael Jodar, the Spanish 19-year-old wunderkind quite rightly being billed as tennis's next big thing.
"A hell of a player," Kokkinakis said. "So if I'm 100 per cent, it's tricky enough as it is.
"But I've learned, unfortunately to play a lot of matches, being very far from my best, so I'd love the opportunity to just go out there and be able to compete a little bit and try and hope that my tennis is good enough.
"I never really have too many doubts about my tennis if I'm feeling good. It's obviously just the body. So whatever happens this week, I really want to try and give myself a proper pre-season and go into the summer confident in my body." Â
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