“When you’ve got that on your playing arm – this is my life, this is my career" - Jack Draper reviews harsh reality of arm injury after another sobering realisation

Jack Draper was once again left a frustrated figure after a painful loss to Martin Landaluce in the first round of the Cincinnati Open. The Brit failed to convert six set points and blew a 5-2 lead in the second to lose 6-3, 7-5 as he continues to try and find himself on court again.

The former World No.4 was not emotional like in the Canadian Open, but he linked the defeat to the same reasons as in Montreal. He would go a break down very early against his young Spanish opponent who stayed firm and took the first set with ease.

Draper fought back, breaking at the start of the second set while coolly rebuffing efforts from his opponent to get back level. After securing a double break to go 5-2 to the good, it looked almost certain that a third set would be necessary to split these two competitors.

That was not the case as Draper saw what chances he had of sealing a first win since the Eastbourne Open fly out of the window. Numerous set points were missed as Landaluce stormed past the Brit to glory, winning five consecutive games in the process to advance in Ohio.

Draper had sunk to World No.143 following a bruised humerus picked up just over a year ago. He has not been able to fully recover from the injury and has since struggled to find any sorts of momentum on court as he looks to get himself back up the order.

He was sombre when recalling the performance, comparing it to the prior tournament. “It’s the same as last week, the way I’m usually able to fight for every ball and conduct myself, it’s just missing,” Draper said.

“After last week, I put in a lot of hard work to play a bit better this week. Obviously, the conditions and all the things that I’m changing is very hard to manage, but I think from just an internal point of view, it’s a difficult place to be right now.”

Almost a shadow of himself, Draper mournfully reviewed why he cannot produce his strongest quality on court. “From the start of the match, you’re battling it a lot and you’re trying to keep going with it and moving forwards throughout the match and trying to … pump stuff up and give you energy, but it just suppresses you down. It’s got to a point with me where it’s taken probably one of my biggest qualities, my fighting spirit.”

Whatever Draper is currently doing, he can simply not find his best level with this injury continuing to hamper him and prevent the 24-year-old from unlocking his true potential.

“I think that’s the toughest part,” he said. “It’s like there are no right answers. You have to figure it out. A lot of it’s probably, I found out in the end, biomechanics and changing rackets. It’s a tough injury because you have to start again with what you do."

He explained how this injury still affects him. “There’s a level of chronic pain that’s always with you. That starts to go away, but obviously the arm is linked to the elbow. It’s linked to bicep tendinitis, it’s linked to so many nerves around that area. So when you have an injury to that area, the whole arm is kind of lit up. It’s like someone taking blood pressure. And your arm’s just [struggling].

“When you’ve got that on your playing arm – this is my life, this is my career, you know? It’s tough enough as it is to play such an intense sport and the amount we have to give to it. And when you’ve got an injury that is tough to come past and tough to understand, there’s many challenges, there’s many obstacles. For a normal person, they’d go and probably have six months off and it might recover and heal. Truth is, I’m playing tennis and so it’s not as simple as taking time off and it’s going to go because it doesn’t [work]. I’ve tried it.”

Without a protective ranking, Draper has to rely on wildcards to enter the big tournaments. The back-to-back Masters 1000 ones he was offered have not been used to great effect, in truth just another reality check on how far off the pace he currently is. Draper will hope to find a solution soon because if not, he may see what was set to be a flourishing tennis career challenging for the biggest titles in the world never come to fruition.