Jack Draper has had plenty of time to work on elements of his game during his absence from the match court.
Draper has been struggling with injury over the past year, having been side-lined since Wimbledon last year due to bone bruising in his left arm.
The Briton has only played two singles matches since then, including Draper competing in Great Britain’s Davis Cup tie against Norway last month.
However, he has not played a match since then, with Draper withdrawing from the Rotterdam Open.
As Draper looks to play his first ATP Tour event since June in Dubai, he has revealed what he has been working on during his absence.
Jack Draper explains what he has been trying to improve in his game
Draper will make his return to the ATP Tour at the Dubai Tennis Championships, and he has spoken to Tennis TV about the changes he has gone through in the past eight months.
As well as discussing how his injury has changed him mentally, Draper also revealed that it has given him time to work on both his serve and volleys.
“I think mentally when you go through a lot of adversity it changes you, makes you more resilient,” said Draper. “I think if we are talking purely as a tennis player, I’ve had a lot of time to work on my net game, a lot of time to work on my serve, I think a lot of areas I’ve been able to clean up.
“In tennis when you are travelling the whole time, when you’re competing week in, week out, you don’t have a lot of time to improve a lot of things, especially the way the tour is now, so having the time even though it was way too long to actually be able to improve my tennis, improve my game for the future was a good thing and let’s see with my tennis.”
Draper already had one of the best serves on the ATP Tour, so it will be interesting to see what he has changed to an already strong shot of his.
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Who is Jack Draper playing at the Dubai Tennis Championships?
Although he has played only one match that could earn him ranking points since Wimbledon, Draper is still the fourth seed at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Draper will play a qualifier in his first ATP match of the year against Quentin Halys, who he has never played against before.
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If he is able to beat Halys, then Draper could play either Shanghai Masters finalist Arthur Rinderknech or Fabian Marozsan.
| Dubai Tennis Championships 2026 | Jack Draper’s Potential Opponent |
| First Round | Quentin Halys (Q) |
| Second Round | Arthur Rinderknech/Fabian Marozsan |
| Quarterfinal | Andrey Rublev (5)/Stefanos Tsitsipas/Ugo Humbert/Valentin Royer |
| Semifinal | Alexander Bublik (2)/Jakub Mensik (6)/Tallon Griekspoor/Hubert Hurkacz |
| Final | Felix Auger-Aliassime (1)/Daniil Medvedev (3)/Karen Khachanov (7)/Jiri Lehecka (8) |
The first seeded player Draper could play at the Dubai Tennis Championships is Andrey Rublev, who beat him in the Qatar Open final last year, with another potential quarterfinal meeting against defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Although he is still the world number 15, Draper has the pressure of a big ranking drop coming up soon as he looks to defend his Indian Wells title next month.
Before he looks ahead to the latter stages of the tournament, Draper will play his match against Halys on Monday, February 23.
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