Dream Wimbledon return turns into familiar nightmare: Jack Draper out before showpiece Fritz clash with arm injury recurrence

Monday, 29 June 2026 at 15:41

Jack Draper is out of this year's Wimbledon with a recurrence of his arm injury that has kept the Brit out of contention for the vast majority of the season and stops the dream Taylor Fritz clash tomorrow in its tracks.

It has been an all too familiar sight for Draper who has gone from having the world at his feet when he won Indian Wells and looked to finally be banishing injury demons to now when he is out of the main tournament on the calendar for British interest.

This also a week after he showed real encouraging signs. He lost to Ugo Humbert in the semi-finals of Eastbourne 7-5, 6-3 and despite the semi-final defeat, it was a great week. He has also been joined by Andy Murray as of late in a dream tandem that now won't bear fruit.

"Devastated to share that I have had to withdraw from my first round match due to a recurrence of my arm injury," he penned in announcing his withdrawal.

Damning 24 hours for British hopes

"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!!"

Draper's troubles began after Wimbledon last year when he took nearly seven months off with bone bruising in his arm. Then another disaster struck with a knee injury prompting him to miss the entire clay-court season.

Fans robbed of Draper v Fritz.

This also comes on a pretty poor 24 hours for the Brits with Emma Raducanu who was due to play on Court One today having to withdraw at the 11th hour. She suffered a stress fracture and like Draper had shown real signs of a return to form.

After being out with lingering effects of an illness for most of spring, she reached the final of Queen's losing to Donna Vekic. Now the two top Brits interest wise are out. Sonay Kartal too is also not playing leaving mainly Katie Boulter and Cameron Norrie.

Dan Evans of course won't play his final tournament after he was denied a wildcard and lost in qualifying and Harriet Dart took the Court No.1 slot left by Raducanu this afternoon.

BREAK: Jack Draper is out of #Wimbledon with a recurrence of his arm injury.

Was due to play Taylor Fritz on Tuesday on Centre Court...
— James Gray (@jamesgraysport) June 29, 2026

Samuel GillEditor-in-Chief

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