{"id":582789,"date":"2026-08-12T21:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/582789\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:24:19","slug":"jack-draper-when-you-reach-rock-bottom-like-that-you-can-come-back-up-again-jack-draper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/582789\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Draper: \u2018When you reach rock bottom like that you can come back up again\u2019 | Jack Draper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those painful images have relentlessly spread to all corners of the internet. Deep in the final set of the first-round match at the Canadian Open against T\u00e9rence Atmane just over a week ago, 15 months of pent up emotion erupted. Two games from defeat, Draper spent the entire changeover in tears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was a devastating and alarming sight. Injuries had already defined so much of Draper\u2019s career, but the uncertainty of trying to recover from a bone bruise injury to his left arm over the past year has been more challenging than anything he has experienced. All of his efforts since last July have been focused on trying to find a way to compete consistently at the highest level again, to no avail.<\/p>\n

It was reasonable to wonder if his tears represented the realisation he may never recover, but the 24-year-old was seen on the practice court the following day in Montreal and his name did not shift from the entry list of the Cincinnati Open, where he is a wildcard recipient.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Thursday\u2019s first-round match against Mart\u00edn Landaluce, Draper speaks with admirable vulnerability and optimism about this most difficult period. \u201cI don\u2019t get emotional often,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was once I got emotional in practice in May when I had really bad knee tendinitis and my arm was really sore as well. I was in so much pain. I was running and my knee [hurt] and my hitting the balls and my arm was sore.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week came from a place of, I think I had so much to focus on and manage, so much change going on in my tennis. I got to [No]4 in the world through doing the same things, the consistent work, the differences, and then went through this whole process of a lot of setbacks and a lot of struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s taken a lot out of me. But then at the same time, I\u2019m in a position where I\u2019m having to start again. That reality is difficult sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I got emotional was that through all the challenges, you can forget who you are on the court. And last week I felt like I couldn\u2019t give any more. I was emotional because I didn\u2019t recognise the player I was out on the court due to my injuries and due to probably the way I\u2019ve been feeling for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you reach rock bottom like that you can come back up again. Since then I\u2019ve practised really well, I\u2019ve had amazing support from the people around me and you get to a point more and more of acceptance. We\u2019ve definitely reached that acceptance phase now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Draper has reached the acceptance stage after more than a year of uncertainty due to his injury problems. Photograph: Canadian Press\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Draper has spent the past year desperately trying to find solutions to this injury. After retreating on some of his earlier changes to his racket strings and technique, his retirement from Wimbledon<\/a> on the eve of the tournament forced him to make even more extreme changes in his attempts to reduce the strain on his arm.<\/p>\n

Not only has he returned to a hybrid gut string setup, he is playing with a completely different, more flexible racket. Draper appears to be using a frame from a company other than his sponsor, Dunlop, which he declined to comment on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAfter this long period, my shift has gone away from performance,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m changing my string. I desperately don\u2019t want to. I desperately know it\u2019s hopefully not something that I\u2019m going to have to do moving forwards, but it\u2019s something I have to do for the nature of my injury. Same with the racket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult one because I\u2019m a winner. I\u2019m out there, I want to perform. But I have to accept reality, which is that I have to find a way in very uncomfortable circumstances right now. But if that can get me to the end of the year where I\u2019m feeling really good again and my body\u2019s in a great place and my mind\u2019s in a great place, then that\u2019s only going to help me to move completely past this injury. But there is a way out and I\u2019m seeing that on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, Draper stood at a career-high ranking of No 4. Now he is ranked No 143 and the stop-and-start nature of his injury struggles mean he is not eligible for protected ranking. He is reliant solely on wildcards to compete on the ATP tour rather than in qualifying draws or on the ATP Challenger circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very start of my injury, if I was to say to myself: \u2018Right, I\u2019m four in the world now, what\u2019s the worst outcome?\u2019 It would probably be where I\u2019ve got to,\u201d he says, smiling. \u201cBut there\u2019s a certain peace in that and acceptance because I have to start again. And what a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those painful images have relentlessly spread to all corners of the internet. Deep in the final set of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-582789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}