Jack Draper has been tipped by many as the top candidate from the rest of the pack to close the gap on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the top of men’s tennis.
The Briton, still just 24 years of age, achieved a career-high ranking of fourth in the world last year and was making huge improvements to his game.
Draper clinched a maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the Indian Wells Open in 2025 and made the final of the Madrid Open.
Where will Jack Draper be ranked at the end of 2026?
Will he return to the top 10 or are you predicting him to drop down?
He was making plenty of headway, but ultimately suffered an arm injury that saw him sidelined for the second half of the season.
Despite Draper enjoying some promising results this year upon returning from the setback, former Italian player Fabio Fognini has doubts about him.
Fabio Fognini discusses Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s dominance
As per La Gazzetta dello Sport, Fognini said: “The famous third wheel for Alcaraz and Sinner? At the moment, it doesn’t exist.
“Zverev is world No. 3, he’s been at a high level for a long time, but against Jannik and Carlos he always loses now.
“I like Draper, but I don’t know if he’ll return to being the player he was before the injury.
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“Musetti just deserves compliments, because you don’t reach world No. 5 by chance. But he’s struggling to find his rhythm again after the injury in Australia.
“The problem is that to challenge Jannik and Carlos, you need a consistency in performance and results that no one can manage to deliver: in a single tournament they might even lose, but over the course of an entire season, they’re untouchable.”
Jack Draper’s best tournament run so far in 2026
Draper returned from injury at the Davis Cup, where he kicked off his 2026 campaign with a win for Team Great Britain.
He then lost in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, before entering the Indian Wells Open, where he recorded his best tournament run of the year so far.
In the first leg of the Sunshine Double, Draper came back from a set down to beat Roberto Bautista Agut in round one.
Draper beat Francisco Cerundolo after that and then earned one of the biggest wins of his career, beating Novak Djokovic in a three-set thriller.
His run ultimately came to an end in the quarterfinals, losing to Daniil Medvedev.
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