"I think I got a scan that gave me false hope" - Injury blunder caused Jack Draper longer spell on sidelines as he advocates for fairer sport

Jack Draper's season ended in severe disappointment after a bruised humerous forced him to cruelly observe the rest of the action in 2025 on the sidelines. This could have been a different story, with a scan feeding him 'false hope' of a sooner return.

The British number one picked up the setback at Wimbledon, and nursed it ahead of the US Open, where he was defending a semi-final from 2024. He attempted to play but the pain was too much. After his first-round triumph, Draper was forced to abandon his campaign at Flushing Meadows. In turn, this abruptly ended his season.

With this time off, Draper has gained added motivation and hunger for a strong comeback in 2026. “Although it’s hurt me a lot, the fact that I’ve had to miss out a long period of time, it’s also given me some perspective and given me an added motivation and fuel in my belly to push on to where I ultimately want to get to,” Draper said in an interview with The Independent.

Draper's arm injury did not fully heal, despite a scan saying otherwise. “I had to come back and find out what was going on. Essentially, I think I got a scan that gave me false hope, that maybe was reported wrong. I don’t regret playing [the US Open] because I’m an athlete, I want to achieve great things. I was in such a good place leading up to Wimbledon, with my ranking, with my tennis, that I wanted to keep pushing on. It was just unfortunate that it wasn’t something that I could push on with.”

He admitted that is eagerness to return to the court held him back. “Look, maybe that’s part of the reason why I ended up getting a little bit of an injury because I was really pushing hard to improve fast.”

Draper believes that his rise in the sport was only set to continue. This made his period out of the game even trickier to digest. “It’s been tough to watch because I was on a trajectory where I was trying my best to really catch those guys and do more and more with my game,” he said.

The 23-year-old has picked up his maiden Masters 1000 title this year, while almost clinching another one in Madrid. Despite this huge improvement, Draper is not satisfied with the current results, with him knowing that there is more to unlock in his game.

“There’s so many improvements I can make, physically, mentally, with my tennis," Draper said. "I can be more aggressive, I know that I’ve already got an amazing all-round game in terms of defending and my will to win, but now I think it’s about really utilising my weapons to be able to challenge, especially those two guys who are at the top of the game.”

“Tennis is a sport where the players are the prize asset and there’s nowhere near good enough communication between the grand slams, the ATP, the WTA, the ITF,” he admitted. “Everyone works separately to each other and that’s why I believe the sport is not the best sport it could be.”

He is not the only player to call out the recent problems in tennis. Many other stars have shared their two cents on the situation. A big chunk of this is on money, something Draper confesses they win a lot of. “We do earn a lot of money, I completely understand that,” Draper professed. “My grandad, he worked in a supermarket for 50 years, and sometimes he looks at my prize money and he says, ‘Oh my God, what is this?’. So I completely understand that side of things."

He went on to state that 'transparency' is a currently a dilemma between players and organisations, with him confirming that he and his fellow competitors want what is best for the sport. "There’s not been great transparency between the events and the players, and although there is a lot of money going to the players, I think it’s people outside the sport having an open mind that it’s not necessarily always the players complaining about wanting more money. Players are just advocating for positive changes because things aren’t good enough,” he concluded.