Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper are not playing at Wimbledon this year but they were both in SW19 on day one of the event.
Raducanu's 2023 season hasn't been the best as the Brit dealt with a lot of physical problems dating back to the start of her year in Auckland. She opted to play through the injuries and did rather well but eventually understood that it was not going to get better on its own. Surgery was ultimately needed and she underwent a couple of them.
Raducanu had triple surgery fixing both wrists and an ankle with a possible return in the second half of this year. There haven't been many updates since though many expect her to return in the second half of the year. The Brit made her way to Wimbledon alongside fellow Brit Jack Draper to spend some time with fans waiting in line to enter the Wimbledon grounds.
Draper is another native player who won't play at the event. The Brit also dealt with several injuries this year starting back in Australia after which he missed multiple events due to them. It's been tough for him as he admitted that he was mentally destroyed after the one he suffered at Roland Garros.
Both of them are respective rising stars in the sport and the hope of British tennis. There is a hole to be filled on both the ATP & WTA Tour but their injury struggles are a very odd parallel when it comes to their careers.
Neither were particularly injury prone before becoming professional so this was an unfortunate development for both players. Draper hasn't specified when he'll return though the hope is that it'll happen later this year.
It's the same for Raducanu; she too hasn't really talked much about her return as she was mostly busy spending time away from the sport. It's unclear whether she's back to practice as her social media indicates multiple trips around the world but no court time.
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