Tennis star Jack Draper suffered an injury during the French Open last week and was forced to retire early in the second set of his first-round match against Tomas Martin Etcheverry. During the first set, the British tennis player began to serve underarm due to a shoulder issue. “It’s difficult. It’s extremely tough, tougher than playing and losing. I feel a bit mentally destroyed,” he said, per BBC.com. “It’s really frustrating. But I will get there. It’s just a brutal sport. I hate being the guy who is injured a lot.”
Draper, 21, has suffered his share of injuries during his career, and this is the third successive Grand Slam match where his play has been affected by injury. During the U.S. Open last year, Draper retired in his third-round match against Karen Khachanov due to a hamstring injury. And in the Australian Open, the British tennis player was battling cramps in his loss to Rafael Nadal.
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“I said to my coach, in the first set, I’m not retiring from another match. I don’t want to do this,” Draper stated.”Even if I had to play three sets underarm. I don’t care I just wanted to play. But there’s no point in making this worse.
The shoulder injury has led to Draper going to Instagram to announce he will not participate in Wimbledon this year. “It’s clear my shoulder is going to need time and rehab to get back to where it needs to be,” Draper wrote in an Instagram post. “My team and I have made the difficult decision to miss the grass court season this year. I guess in this sport there are so many ups and downs but this one is tough to take. The only thing for sure is that I will keep persevering. Thank you for all the support I get on here it means a lot.”
Draper is currently ranked No. 60 in the world and his highest ranking in his young career is 38. He has a 31-24 singles record and has yet to win a tournament. Draper’s best finish in a Grand Slam tournament was in 2022 when he reached the third round of the U.S. Open.
