Jack Draper told ‘where most of the damage was done’ that resulted in Wimbledon heartbreak
British tennis has suffered a double blow in the space of 24 hours as Jack Draper has joined Emma Raducanu in pulling out of Wimbledon.
Just hours after Raducanu told the media during her pre-tournament press conference on Sunday that she is hoping to be fit for her first-round match against Antonia Ruzic, she announced her withdrawal from the tournament.
The 23-year-old has a stress fracture in her right leg and revealed in a late-night statement that “I’ve been medically advised to stop pushing through”.
And the disappointment didn’t end there as on Monday a “devastated” Draper also pulled out due to a “recurrence of my arm injury” that has been troubling him for nearly a year.
Draper suffered the injury ahead of the North American hard-court swing last year and didn’t play any warm-up events ahead of the US Open. He eventually made his comeback in the mixed doubles and followed it up with a first-round singles win over Federico Agustin Gomez.
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But he then withdrew ahead of his second-round match and was ruled out of the remainder 2025 season and the start of the 2026 campaign as he missed the Australian Open at the start of this year.
The 24-year-old made his comeback at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February and then played the Sunshine Double before disaster struck at the Barcelona Open as he injured his knee in the first round.
He was forced to miss the French Open and the start of the grass-court season before finally returning at the Eastbourne Open last week where he reached the semi-final.
Draper was due to face sixth seed Taylor Fritz in the first round on Tuesday, but he issued a statement, saying: “There have been a lot of painful moments in the last 12 months, but this one is definitely the absolute worst.”
Former British player Naomi Broady believes the damage was done when he came back too quickly
“It’s awful news for British tennis fans at Wimbledon – the time of the year everyone wants to be playing their best tennis and so many of our best players aren’t even able to walk on to the court to play it,” she said on BBC Radio 5 Live
“For Jack especially, and similarly with Emma Raducanu, the amount of injuries that have kept them out for the last year or so and not enabled them to build up to matches and feel match tight and show what they’re capable of doing.”
She added: “It’s a tough one because if you keep poking at the injury – it’s always good to imagine a scab, if you keep picking at a scab it’s just going to continue to scab over.
“It’s so tough to allow it time to heal and build that load up slowly when you do return and I think that’s where most of the damage is re-done when you come back too quickly.
“But we say how relentless our sport is. It’s so frustrating for him, and Emma Raducanu as well.”
