Jack Draper to miss Australian Open as he continues rehab from "most challenging" injury yet

Great Britain's Jack Draper will have a delayed start to his 2026 season, he announced Friday in a video message posted to social media.

The 24-year-old has been managing bone bruising in his playing arm since the spring. His layoff will extend to five months as he'll pass on both representing Great Britain in the United Cup and competing at the year's first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, with the aim of prioritizing his long-term health and wellness.

The world No. 10 has not played since the US Open at the end of August, when he withdrew from his scheduled second-round match against Zizou Bergs.

“I’ve had this injury for a long time. I’m at the very very end stages of the [rehab] process, and to step back on court back into five-set tennis so soon just doesn’t seem like the smart decision for me and my tennis,” he said.

Draper detailed in New York that he had been dealing with bone bruising in the humerus of his left arm since the clay-court season, where he nonetheless reached the final of the Madrid Open, the quarterfinals of the Italian Open and the fourth rounds of the French Open and the Monte Carlo Masters. He had previously said he planned to compete in Australia in a public appearance shortly before Christmas, following withdrawals from the UTS Grand Final in London and a different offseason exhibition in Macau.

Shoulder and abdominal problems threw Draper's 2023 and 2024 seasons off course, but he called his latest physical problem "the most difficult, the most challenging and the most complex one" in his career thus far.

"It always seems to make me more resilient, to make me hungrier to become the player I want to become even more," he continued.

"I'm looking forward to getting back out there in 2026 and competing. I just want to thank everyone for all the support in 2025. It means the world to me to be competing and to be playing out there on the tour with the other guys. I'm looking forward to doing that again."

Draper reached a career-best ranking of No. 4 in 2025, following an early-season breakthrough to his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells.