Jack Draper pulls out of US Open as injury misery continues

Jack Draper will miss the US Open due to a long-running bone bruising injury which has derailed his last season and a half.

The former world No 4, who reached the semi-finals in New York in 2024, has played sparingly this year as a result of the injury to his dominant left arm, and has decided he needs more time to recover.

He suffered back-to-back losses in Montreal and Cincinnati after another lengthy layoff which saw him miss much of the clay-court season with a separate knee injury, as well as the French Open and Wimbledon.

He has only played 15 matches this season, with the most promising spell coming in a run to the semi-finals on the grass in Eastbourne, but he was subsequently forced to withdraw from Wimbledon.

His withdrawal from Flushing Meadows means he will not have played a single grand slam match in 2026, a hugely frustrating year for a talented player considered capable of challenging the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz for major titles at his best. Draper’s young career has been repeatedly hampered by injuries, with this the most significant of a long list.

The 24-year-old broke down in tears during his opening-round defeat to Terence Atmane in Montreal, a key warm-up tournament for the US Open, and lost in straight sets in the first round in Cincinnati, the final Masters 1000 tournament before the US Open, to Martin Landaluce.

He said after his Cincinnati exit: “The way I’m usually able to fight for every ball and conduct myself, it’s just missing.

“The level of my fall almost from where I was last year and the amount of things that I’m having to change in my tennis … The mountain seems very, very big.”

He has fallen to 143rd in the world and would have needed a wildcard to enter New York, where he reached the last four in a stunning 2024 season.

The news of Draper’s withdrawal comes shortly after world No 1 and 2024 champion Sinner announced he would miss the tournament with a knee issue, although reigning champion Alcaraz is set to make his return after a four-month spell on the sidelines with a wrist injury.