Jack Draper said he is ‘devastated’ to withdraw from Wimbledon after the injury-stricken Brit suffered yet another setback.
The former world No.4 was set to play Taylor Fritz in the first round on Tuesday but has been forced to pull out due to an arm injury. Between 2025 and 2026, Draper missed six months of the Tour due to bone bruising in his arm. A few weeks after his comeback in March, the Brit was then sidelined by tendonitis in his right knee and only returned to the Tour last week at the Eastbourne International, where he reached the semi-finals.
“Devastated to share that I have had to withdraw from my first round match due to a recurrence of my arm injury,” Draper said in a statement.
“There have been a lot of painful moments in the last 12 months but this one is definitely the absolute worst as there is no greater honour for a British player than playing at Wimbledon. I will continue to persevere through this. Thank you for the support!!”
Due to the series of issues, Draper has only been able to play six tournaments since Wimbledon last year. However, at one of those in Barcelona, he retired from his match due to a knee injury.
It was less than 24 hours prior to the statement that Draper was looking ahead to his showdown with Fritz. At the time, he was confident about his ability to play and was eager to return to the top. It is unclear as to when he suffered a flare-up of his arm injury.
“I feel like I’m in a position now where I can compete at a really high level and really compete with the best players,” he said.
“There was a period, even earlier this year, when I was compromising a lot of things. I was using gut strings, changing different areas in my game, not practicing hardly at all.
“Now I’m in a position where I’ve got that load for my body and I’m able to go out there and compete.”
The announcement comes a day after fellow home player Emma Raducanu also withdrew from Wimbledon due to injury. Raducanu’s decision to do so followed a medical evaluation that concluded she has a stress fracture in her leg and has been advised to rest.
Replacing Draper in the draw will be lucky loser Dusan Lajovic.
