Jack Draper is hoping to make his long-awaited return to the ATP Tour at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Draper has been dealing with a serious arm injury, which has reduced him to just two matches since Wimbledon.
After a very brief appearance at the US Open last year, Draper did not return until the Davis Cup last month.
However, after playing just one match in Great Britain’s tie against Norway, Draper withdrew from the Rotterdam Open.
Now, as Draper looks to return to competition at the Dubai Tennis Championships, he has explained the reason for his withdrawal from Rotterdam.
Jack Draper reveals the reason why he withdrew from the Rotterdam Open
Draper won Indian Wells last year, in a breakout start to the season for the Briton, who reached a career-high ranking of world number four.
However, the bone bruising in his left arm has meant that Draper has been unable to continue this momentum and is now down at world number 15.
Ahead of his return to competition at the Dubai Tennis Championships, Draper told Tennis TV how difficult the recovery process has been for him, but insisted that he still believes he can achieve his goals in the sport.
“I’ve been off tour for a long time now,” said Draper. “It’s been a very difficult process, the most challenging thing I’ve been through as a tennis player. Obviously life stuff is different, but it has been very difficult.
“I know I’ve got a long career ahead of me, I know that hopefully those big things I want to achieve are very possible, it was just about not coming back too soon and not making anything worse for the long run.”
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Draper has not played an ATP Tour event since June, but that was supposed to change earlier this month at the Rotterdam Open.
The 24-year-old has now explained why he decided to postpone his return to competition, with Draper admitting he felt like he needed a bit more time after the Davis Cup.
“I think the Davis Cup, it was always a good opportunity for me to come back and dip my toe in the water a bit, especially it being a tie where it’s a bit more controlled,” said Draper. “You know, I can play one match. It wouldn’t be like I was playing a tournament, where potentially I’d have one, two, three, four. So to come back, just play a match and get the feeling of it.
“It was my plan to play Rotterdam, but I just felt like I needed a little bit more time. Just for my body in areas, because obviously when you’re getting back up to full speed with tennis it’s not just say my arm I’m looking after it’s other areas that I’m getting used to being back on the tour and getting back used to feeling 100% and fully match fit again. So I think Davis Cup was great, but I think here is my proper fresh start.”
Jack Draper explains what he has learnt during his time away
It has been eight months since Draper was consistently competing on tour, but it has been even longer since he first started experiencing pain in his arm back in April en route to the Madrid Open final.
When reflecting on his absence, Draper admitted that he was not ‘overly disappointed’ about the initial injury diagnosis as he did not realise how serious it was.
However, Draper has gained something from his time away from tennis, learning about his body and recovery in more detail than he ever had before.
“I mean it’s not an easy injury. It’s actually a really, really bad injury to get,” admitted Draper. “When I first started experiencing some of the symptoms that I had in Madrid last year, I got to Wimbledon I was obviously in a lot of pain.
“But you are often playing with pain as a tennis player, we are playing week in, week out, throwing our bodies around the court, you’re playing through a lot of stuff a lot of the time. So when it came back that I had some bone stress in my arm I wasn’t overly disappointed about it, I just thought I’d carry on and stuff.
“But the aftermath of it has been pretty difficult, there’s been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of pain and a lot of spending time and not being able to do what I love.
“But yeah that’s…it is what it is, I took it on the chin, I tried to keep on improving, keep on learning. I’ve learnt a lot about my body, about recovery, about things I probably didn’t have enough detail in before and I’ve got to keep on moving forward, it’s the only way.”
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Draper is scheduled to play his first match on the ATP Tour since June at the Dubai Tennis Championships against qualifier Quentin Halys.
This is a first-time meeting between the two players, with the match taking place on Monday, February 23.
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