Draper 'Mentally Destroyed' By Another Injury At Roland Garros

| by Evita Mueller

Jack Draper is a very good tennis player but the Brit seemingly can't stay healthy as he retired from another match this year.

Draper opened his year with some very good performances down under in Australia however he retired against Rafael Nadal. Since then it's been mostly pull-out with the Brit skipping over multiple events including the Italian Open recently.

His only event in between these was the Monte-Carlo Masters where he lost to Hubert Hurkacz. He talked about his physical issues a month ago arriving in Paris with a hope that it's all behind him ahead of Roland Garros. A good showing in Lyon last week made a lot of fans hopeful but those hopes were extinguished with another injury.

He wasn't playing very well in his match and went back and forth with his team a few times during the match refusing to retire despite them urging him to retire. The Brit wanted to finish off the match but ultimately was persuaded to retire at the start of the second set calling himself mentally destroyed in the press conference after.

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Yesterday during practice when I was hitting serves, I started to feel a bit of a twinge at the bottom of my shoulder. I took all the things I needed to go on court today, hoping it would settle down. But it didn’t. It got worse. I had every intention to try to compete and play well, but after the first game it was clear that it was very sore.

It's been that type of year for Draper who is a really good player and played very well this year when he actually played. He didn't play too many matches yet his body keeps betraying him. It's very annoying to him as he doesn't want to be the guy who is injured all the time.

I hate being the guy who is injured a lot. It’s difficult. Mentally, it’s extremely tough, tougher than playing and losing almost. I put in a lot of work. I had a good week last week and I’m coming here feeling optimistic but it’s not meant to be. I feel a bit mentally destroyed.

The injury isn't that severe so he should be ready to go for the grass season. Missing Wimbledon would be a huge blow for Draper.

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