Jack Draper reduced to tears as injury problems resurface
Jack Draper reduced to tears as injury problems resurface
Simon BriggsTue, August 4, 2026 at 9:16 PM UTC
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Jack Draper became visibly emotional during the third set
Jack Draper wept in frustration towards the end of a three-set defeat to Terence Atmane in which his long-standing injury issues appeared to resurface.
Draper had not played for almost six weeks as a result of the ongoing problems with his racket arm which have plagued him since the late spring of last year.
He pulled out of the previous event in Washington at the last moment after experiencing more pain in that apparently insoluble left elbow, but after an extra week’s rest and rehab, he told Sky Sports that he was feeling more confident about this Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal.
However, the evidence of the third set against Atmane – and particularly of Draper’s tears when he sat down during a late changeover – suggested that the injury remained as problematic as ever.
As usual, Draper’s tennis was not the problem. After Atmane had snatched the opening set via a single break, he hit back with a textbook second set in which he made only two unforced errors.
But then, early in the third set, Draper abruptly lost power in his racket arm. The speeds on his serve dipped alarmingly at this stage. And when he started tossing in drop shots in almost every point, it became clear that he was no longer able to sustain a regular rally.
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Draper dropped his serve twice during that deciding set, and while the first instance did not raise any particular alarm bells, the second found him clearly struggling to accelerate his racket through the serve.
It was after that game, which handed Atmane a 4-1 lead, that Draper sat down and began weeping copiously while hunched over in a posture of total despair.
The fact that he did not call for the trainer was worrying in itself, suggesting that he did not believe that his ailment could potentially be resolved. But neither did he retire from the match.
Draper is an exceptionally stubborn competitor, and even on Atmane’s first match point, he dredged up a powerful forehand winner despite the pain that it must have sent through his left arm.
Both players must have known, though, that the reprieve was temporary. Atmane needed one more chance, sealing a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory with a second-serve ace.
The result will send Draper back to the drawing board. He is meant to be playing Cincinnati next week, followed by the US Open at the end of the month, but it is hard to see how he can justify continuing with this stop-start pattern of playing matches here and there without seeming to be fully fit. The best solution, at this stage, might be to take the rest of the season off.
Source: “AOL Sports”
