British No1 Jack Draper is facing a race to be fit for the new season after a hip issue forced him to cancel a training week with reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Draper had been intending to travel to Spain for an intense week of sparring with the world No 3, whom he beat for the first time at Queen’s this summer. But it would be too risky to go ahead with the plan, he told reporters on Wednesday.
“If I’m not 100 per cent, it’s unfair on Carlos,” said Draper. “I have a little bit of a niggle in my hip area. I don’t think it’s anything too serious, but because of the way tennis is with timelines and short turnarounds, it’s important that I don’t try and do anything to potentially make it worse and jeopardise the start of my season.
“Obviously Carlos is one of the best players in the world,” Draper continued, “so getting that exposure to the highest level possible on a regular basis [would be ideal] for the New Year. It’s obviously very disappointing that I can’t go out. But that’s the thing in sport, sometimes you have these sorts of setbacks.”
Draper added that, while he is continuing to work on his overall strength in the gym, he is unable to play any tennis at the moment. He is due to fly out to Australia on December 23, ready to represent Great Britain in their first United Cup match a week later. But it is still too early to say whether he will be fit for that build-up event ahead of January’s Australian Open.
‘I want to go to Australia healthy, ready to play some good tennis there’
“It’s kind of a waiting game to see how it settles,” said Draper, 22, who has climbed to No15 in the world after winning two ATP titles in 2024 and also reaching the semi-finals of September’s US Open. “I really want to play United Cup, but then again, it’s obviously a long season. What’s more in my mind is that I want to go to Australia healthy, ready to play some good tennis there.”
Draper was speaking shortly before a fund-raising “memory walk” along the side of the Thames in London, which was held in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society. His grandmother Brenda, a former tennis coach who helped teach him the rudiments of the game, is a sufferer from the disease.
“My gran is just at home now,” said Draper shortly before the walk, which featured many staff members from the Lawn Tennis Association as well as his brother Ben and mother Nicky. “She’s not in pain, she’s pretty content, but she is just sitting there needing to be fed.
I’ll definitely see her before I leave for Australia. And I always feel a bit guilty as well when I’m away.”
For more information on the Alzheimer’s Society, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk
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