Jack Draper makes honest confession ahead of Australian Open – ‘It’s a day-by-day thing’
Jack Draper remains confident that he will compete at the 2025 Australian Open, but he admits he is unlikely to be in perfect shape following his recent injury while he has also raised doubts about his participation in the United Cup.
The British No 1 is coming off a career-best season as he made his top 20 breakthrough, finishing at career-high No 15 in the ATP Rankings, while he also won his maiden title at the ATP 250 Stuttgart Open in June and followed it up with the ATP 500 Vienna Open in October.
Draper was due to start his pre-season training for the new campaign alongside Carlos Alcaraz at Juan Carlos Ferrero’s tennis academy in Alicante, Spain, in early December, but his plans were thrown off course as he sustained a hip injury.
The 22-year-old admits he is still struggling and it will affect his preparation for the season-opening Grand Slam at Melbourne Park.
“In all honesty, I haven’t been able to train the way I wanted to,” he told Sky Sports. “My preparation, probably, for Australia won’t be the best.
“But that’s the situation in the sport you’ve got to roll with the highs and lows – and hopefully I give myself the best shot of playing well there.”
The Australian Open gets underway on January 12, but Draper is due to start his season with Great Britain at the United Cup on December 30 with a tie against Argentina before they take on Australia in the second group match a day later.
When asked if he will line up at the United Cup, he replied: “We’ll see. I’ve been managing my body, talking to my team. It’s a day-by-day thing at this stage.
“Tennis is just a rolling wheel. There’s every tournament, and it feels so significant, every event. And it is, because there are points available, there’s lots of opportunity.
“But sometimes, you have to make the right decision, so we’ll discuss it each day as a team, see what’s right for me and yeah, go from there.”
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Besides winning two ATP singles trophies in 2024, Draper also reached the semi-final of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career as he made it to the last four of the US Open before losing to world No 1 and eventual winner Jannik Sinner.
But there were also quite a few injury setbacks.
The world No 15 added: “There’s always frustrations in tennis. There are always frustrations in any sport. You think you’re going great and then you pick up a niggle and you’re not able to do the thing you want to do. And you’ve got to accept that.
“You’ve got to accept there are amazing things that can happen – there’s also really tough moments, and as a young player, I’m still getting to grips with all of that – and also understanding that sometimes it’s not the result that feels amazing, it’s not what you achieve, it’s actually just coming in every day, progressing and being able to do what you love doing.”
