There were many times in the past year when just watching tennis was painful for Jack Draper. Twelve months ago, the Briton was riding high, ranked a career-high No 4, having won his first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells.
The subsequent year has been the most difficult of his career, with an arm injury – a bruised humerus – causing him to pull out of last year’s US Open and miss this year’s Australian Open, while a knee injury in the spring forced him out of the French Open. He only returned last week in Eastbourne, reaching the semi-finals.
“It wasn’t easy, especially not watching tennis,” he says. “I just had to stay away from it. It would wind me up to watch tennis because I wanted to be out there. I spent a lot of time working on other areas of my tennis, like my mental side. I didn’t stop physically. I tried to stay as fit as I could because that’s the thing – you never know when you’re going to turn the corner, never know when you’re going to be able to do it again.
“Coming here last year as four in the world, I was feeling incredible and looking forward to everything that was to come. I felt like I was gradually building up and up and up, confidence in my tennis, in my body, in my mind. Then you have something that stops you in your tracks when you’re not expecting it. It’s really difficult to accept that.
“It’s been an incredibly long process. It’s taken a lot out of me mentally coming back and coming back and coming back. At the same time, 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. There was a period, even earlier this year, I was compromising a lot of things. I was using gut strings, changing different areas in my game, practising 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.”
Good, then, that Draper has Andy Murray in his camp. The former world No 1 joined Draper’s team at the start of the grass-court season and though the 24-year-old had to miss the Queen’s Club tournament, the Scot’s presence has been hugely beneficial. Murray dealt with numerous injuries during his career, famously returning from a resurfaced hip to add on a few years, showing his mental fortitude. If anyone knows how to cope, it’s him.
“Having him around helps a lot,” Draper says. “He’s one of my biggest inspirations. Him just being here … not just now, but the last few weeks, has really helped my confidence. It’s not been an easy time at all. Him being around to help guide me through this period, get me back to being on court, get me back to competing, has been very, very special. I think it’s just the start.”
Draper has done everything possible to get back to this point, including changing his serving stance, going back to a step-up, where he starts feet apart and then brings the back foot forward to join the front one. He has also consulted a sports psychologist and looked into every aspect of recovery.
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His return is a huge boost for British tennis but Draper is concerned at the number of injuries on the men’s tour, including Carlos Alcaraz, who is missing from Wimbledon due to a wrist injury. “When I look at the draws for the weeks when I was out, everything is shoulder, arm, wrist,” Draper says. “Whether that’s the quality of the balls … the way athletes are getting better and hitting the ball harder and moving better, I think they need to really take a close look at what we’re doing on tour, definitely the state of the Masters 1000s, the 12-day events. I think the tournaments are going to suffer a lot if not much changes.”
There will be no time for Draper to ease himself into Wimbledon, though, as he plays Taylor Fritz, the No 6 seed, in round one. “It’s just important that I focus on my preparation,” the Briton says. “I believe that I can obviously win the match. But I need to play incredible tennis and need to compete really hard, need to be ready for it.”
