Jack Draper will miss the Australian Open, which will extend his tennis layoff due to bone bruising in his playing arm to five months.
Before Christmas, a video from Weybridge Tennis Center in Surrey, UK circulated online showed Draper saying that he would be playing in Australia.
“It’s not been the easiest time for me, I was coming up, feeling like I was in a really good place right at the top. Something like this happens and you either stand still or let it get the best if you or you keep on going,” Draper said in the video.
But in a video statement released Dec. 26, Draper said he and his team had decided not to head out to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of 2026, which begins Jan. 18. It will take his absence to five months, with the Brit having missed an Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) event in December which had looked set to be his comeback.
“I’ve had this injury for a long time. I’m at the very very end stages of the process, and to step back on court back into five-set tennis so soon just doesn’t seem like the smart decision for me and my tennis,” he said.
— jack draper (@jackdraper0) December 26, 2025
Draper, 24, has been managing the injury since the middle of this year’s clay-court season, in which he reached the final of the Madrid Open, the quarterfinals of the Italian Open and the fourth rounds of the French Open and the Monte Carlo Masters.
He has been hampered by injury issues on several occasions. He missed six months of the 2023 season with multiple shoulder injuries and has managed his schedule carefully since, which has produced the best results of his career.
After reaching the U.S. Open semifinals last year, Draper won his first ATP Masters 1000 title (one rung below the Grand Slams) in March, at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. He then climbed to a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in June and looked a sure bet to compete at the season-ending ATP Tour Finals in Turin, Italy, before the injury forced him out of the U.S. Open despite his winning his opening match.
During a news conference in New York, Draper said that he had been “ahead of schedule” in his recovery, but he has not played since, after announcing the end of his season in early September. He finished the year world No. 1o.
‘A huge disappointment, but not altogether surprising’
Friday’s news is a huge disappointment for Draper, but not altogether surprising.
He had planned to start his return to the court with the United Cup, the mixed team event, before playing the ATP 250 Adelaide International ahead of the Australian Open.
Instead, Draper will be unable to defend the points he picked up for reaching the fourth round at last year’s tournament, and he will have been out for just over five months by the time he’s able to return in February — at the earliest. His statement announcing his withdrawal from the first major of the year did not put a timeframe on his comeback.
Even if Draper is able to return in February, it will lead him with a short lead-up to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., the ATP Masters 1000 title he won last year, during which he will defend 1,000 ranking points.
Zooming out a little, Draper’s ongoing absence has robbed the ATP Tour of a potential challenger to the duopoly of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Draper beat Alcaraz en route to the Indian Wells title, and the six-time Grand Slam champion even admitted he’d been nervous about facing the Brit ahead of the match.
It looked at that point as though Draper would use the triumph as a springboard to even greater success. He believes that will still be the case — just not quite as quickly as he hoped. — Charlie Eccleshare