Jack Draper has opened up on his tearful reaction at the Canadian Open, while admitting he feels like he has hit “rock bottom”.
The 24-year-old has played in just six tournaments this year, with the Brit beset by a string of injury issues, leading to him dropping out of the world’s top 100.
The former world No 4 has been plagued by bone bruising in his left arm for a year now, while knee tendonitis reared its ugly head in April.
After making last-minute withdrawals from Wimbledon and Washington, Draper wiped tears from his eyes late on in his three-set loss to Terence Atmane in Montreal.
While the left-hander has made no bones about how tough this period has been for him, the world No 143 now accepts the hand he has been dealt and is remaining positive.
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He told The Guardian ahead of his first-round Cincinnati match with Martin Landaluce, “I don’t get emotional often. There was once I got emotional in practice in May when I had really bad knee tendonitis and my arm was really sore as well. I was in so much pain.
“I was running and my knee [hurt] and my hitting the balls and my arm was sore. Last week came from a place of, I think I had so much to focus on and manage, so much change going on in my tennis. I got to [No]4 in the world through doing the same things, the consistent work, the differences, and then went through this whole process of a lot of setbacks and a lot of struggle.
“That’s taken a lot out of me. But then at the same time, I’m in a position where I’m having to start again. That reality is difficult sometimes. The reason I got emotional was that through all the challenges, you can forget who you are on the court.
“And last week I felt like I couldn’t give any more. I was emotional because I didn’t recognise the player I was out on the court due to my injuries and due to probably the way I’ve been feeling for a long time.
“When you reach rock bottom like that you can come back up again. Since then I’ve practised really well, I’ve had amazing support from the people around me and you get to a point more and more of acceptance. We’ve definitely reached that acceptance phase now.”
Draper will hope no more injury issues crop up at Cincinnati, before the final major of the year, the US Open, gets underway later this month.
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