"I was completely gassed out of energy" - Jack Draper still working on physically getting back to best after positive Indian Wells return

There were signs of the old Jack Draper after he made an impression at Indian Wells. He exited at the quarterfinal stage against a rejuvenated Daniil Medvedev while stealing the headlines against 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. He has huge ambitions to win these tournaments, and to do that, he needs to get back up to the physical capacities needed to compete day in, day out.

The former world number four reached that career high in the ranking in the grass swing, seemingly having the sky as his limit. Unfortunately, he would only play a couple more matches with an arm injury, costing him a lot of time on court as he patiently awaited for it to heal.

He made a return at the Davis Cup against Norway before returning to the ATP Tour in Dubai, losing out to an inspired Arthur Rinderknech. Indian Wells was a huge chance to see where he was at compared to the competition around him. He took down Roberto Bautista Agut and Francisco Cerundolo in two accomplished performances before facing Djokovic in the last-16. The 23-year-old came on top in a thrilling match of tennis before controversy arose in a straight sets defeat against the eventual runner-up Medvedev. He will now compete in the Miami Open, hoping to continue this positive momentum.

Indian Wells has become a popular tournament for Draper in recent years. He won the title in 2025 in a huge statement of intent as he climbed into the top 10 in the world for the first time. "It [Indian Wells record] does help me for sure," Draper told Sky Sports.

It was always going to take time to get back to his best after a long-term absence, but it seems that the preparation work put in has benefited the Brit. "When you've had a lot of injuries in the past you're able to understand that if you put in good preparation when you're injured that anything is possible and you can get back to playing at a really high level.

Prior injury struggles have given Draper a lot of unwanted experience in this department. "I've always been pretty good like that even though it's probably not the best thing to be, I don't want to be injured but those matches have helped me understand how I need to keep on improving and growing."

It is all well and good stepping onto the court and defeating one of the greatest players to play the sport, but Draper is desperate to get that physical resilience on court back so he can compete day after day at the highest level.

"I think when you've been out injured for a while it's no necessarily about the actual injury you had, it's about getting your body to feeling robust enough." Draper admitted.

He has high ambitions to win the biggest tournaments on the ATP calendar, but will need to get back up to speed on court before he can well and truly compete with the best again, citing exhaustion and fatigue against Medvedev. "For instance, last week playing those intense matches, you have to back up those performances and against Daniil [Medvedev] I was completely gassed out of energy. If you want to win those big events you have to be able to back it up and keep going."

The solution for this: playing more tennis matches. "That's the physical aspect but for the tennis aspect the more matches you play, the more times you can get out there, and understand your game better, the more you are able to do good things."

Draper is just one of many huge tennis talents ready to step back onto the court after a quick turnaround from Indian Wells. He is set to defend a lot of points in the clay swing after reaching the Madrid Open final and Italian Open quarterfinal. A second round exit from last year means that he has a chance to gain some valuable points on his record as he looks to shoot up the rankings and reinstate himself as the British number one. That quest will begin in the second round after he is given a bye. The winner of Reilly Opelka and Nuno Borges. A third round tie against Taylor Fritz and a quarterfinal matchup versus the world number one Carlos Alcaraz all could become reality if the stars align in Florida.