"We need a very sober and serious view about”: Andy Roddick expresses concern for Jack Draper and Rune as rising stars struggle with injuries

Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick expressed his concern about Jack Draper’s latest injury, just before the start of the Australian Open, during the latest episode of Served with Roddick, where he and John Wertheim discussed one of the Tour’s biggest talents - who has been struggling with injuries since the beginning of his career.

The American insisted on his criticism of the calendar and reviewed the players sidelined who will miss the first major of the year. “It makes me sad because of how well he played at the beginning of last year,” commented the American. “He is one of the guys who has the weaponry.”

“He took out Carlos at Indian Wells last year, right? He has the weaponry to be a disruptor and to win there and on different surfaces. So that's what gets my attention in the off-season: gosh, you hope this isn't overly concerning.”

Draper won’t be the only high-profile absentee, as names like Holger Rune and Arthur Fils also join the list—two players who have shown potential to reach the top. “Those are three ascending stars under age 25, missing big chunks of time with three different injuries,” mentioned journalist John Wertheim.

To this, Roddick responded by drawing a comparison with the NBA and the injuries seen on the ATP Tour: “It's not actually totally dissimilar to what's going on in the NBA. Like, you look at the usage rate of the top 50 contracts in the NBA and they've met—I’ll get it slightly wrong, right,” the former world No. 1 said. “But they've missed something like 40% of the games, like the top 50 contracts in the NBA. It's some insane number this year; bigger, stronger, faster, more extreme is going to lead to blowing out tires. It just is.”

“But like Fils with a stress fracture in your back… these are pressure injuries. Holger Rune out of nowhere snapping his Achilles at 22 years old—it stinks,” Roddick added. “It is something that we need to have a very sober and serious view about.”

The 2003 US Open champion acknowledged that the first weeks of competition are still a period of adaptation—with the United Cup and several events in Australia—functioning as warm-ups before the Happy Slam.

“I feel like for these two weeks of the year, players really get the benefit of the doubt. Yeah. I think I would strongly value if someone caught a heater before Australia, right, and won a tournament and won some matches. There are a million lead-up events, so I'd give that a lot of credit—getting out of the gates hot.”

“Taylor Fritz losing a match or Coco having a bad set—the whole point of going over this early is to knock some of the rust off. You don't choose it. It's not as if you're going out and you're trying not to play well, or you're going out with an insurance policy, but you go and schedule that way so that if things go a little sideways in the first week, you have enough time to figure it out.”

The American also insisted that only a few exceptional players reach a high level quickly—recalling how Roger Federer often started his seasons in Melbourne without many tournaments leading up to it.

“I actually had a conversation with Alex Zverev a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things we agreed on was that,” Roddick said, “We were amazed by how Roger would just go into a major, without any matches, and compete. Alcaraz did it last year, Sinner did it last year in Australia. I don’t have that level of confidence to go just fly blind in my first match after two and a half months at a major.”

“I think it takes a very specific… you know, most of us normies need some time to kind of work through it,” Roddick added. “We wouldn’t go record a Netflix special on stand-up without running it by some comedy clubs first, right?”