Jack Draper: “At the start of the week, there was concern whether I could play one match”

Britain’s Jack Draper has had unfortunate luck with injuries. One year ago, he was forced to retire from his third-round match against Karen Khachanov in New York. Since then, he’s suffered with an ab injury as well as a shoulder problem.

Now, with a four-set win over Michael Mmoh, he is into the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the very first time.

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“When I am playing, I’m not here just to, you know, be here and be happy to play,” the 21-year-old told journalists. “Like, I’m a competitor when I get into the matches. I want to win everything.

“Definitely at the start of the week, there was real concern about my body and with the year I’ve had whether I’d be able to, you know, to play one match. Obviously best-of-five sets, so it’s completely different to what a three-set match even holds.

“It was difficult. Like I said yesterday in the press, you know, I got told I had a small tear in my shoulder at the end of last week, and then we didn’t know if it was related to the previous injury that I’d had, which was quite serious.

“But it turned out it wasn’t. It was in a different place. You know, probably likely to do with my shoulder in the place that I had the injury. But, you know, we just wanted to stay fit this trip. That was kind of the goal, you know, to get consistent competition in, because that’s just something I haven’t had.

“To come here this week and to play the way I have and to compete the way I have and for my body to hold up has been, it’s been pretty special for me, really.”

Draper: I’m very pleased with myself

As well as taking another step along the Slam road, there was another little victory for Draper.

“I’ve never won a four-set match before,” he pointed out. “Even though I’ve been top 50 in the world, I’ve never — you know, I haven’t had much Grand Slam exposure. In the Grand Slams I’ve been in, I had the No 1 seed twice out of four times I played before the French Open [Rafael Nadal in the 2023 Australian Open, Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2021], so I’ve had tough draws and I’ve maybe not been able to sort of progress as much in the tournament as I’d like.

“For my body to be the way it was today, I’m very proud of myself, and that’s a testament to the work I’ve put in as well. It’s not been easy for me the last sort of year or two with the injury struggles I’ve had. I come into each tournament thinking, Oh, am I going to hold up this week? Five sets is a bit different, and to do it at this level, I’m very pleased with myself.”

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