Jack Draper called his hip injury at the Australian Open a “ticking time bomb” and insisted that he must prioritise his recovery to avoid a long-term injury after being forced to retire from his fourth-round match against Carlos Alcaraz.
After battling through three brilliant five-set wins to reach the second week for the first time in his career, Draper was forced to retire against Alcaraz on Sunday while trailing 7-5, 6-1. “I had tendinitis in my hip, which I had to get MRI looked at and stuff,” he said. “I have had a history of problems in that area. It hasn’t gone away. I’m still dealing with that. Obviously in the preseason, it [went] into my back and I couldn’t walk and it was really difficult. I have come here and I have been managing that.
“I have been unbelievably surprised with how much I have been able to play and put my body through, more than I have ever done before, especially. So I think it’s just one of those things, just massive overload. This area of my body, if I don’t get that right and I don’t make good decisions, I don’t want to miss three or four months because of that.”
Despite his frustration after another retirement in a big match against a top player, Draper said he was proud of his efforts throughout the week: “[I] started the preparation 10 days before. Only started playing points on Saturday probably. Considering everything, I’m incredibly proud of my efforts,” said Draper. “My tennis has been pretty bang-average. The whole week, it’s been really poor, actually, but it’s been my competitiveness, my fight, and my desire to win. That’s got me into the last 16 of a grand slam, which is something I’m very proud of.”
After spending the past few weeks doing everything he could to be prepared for the Australian Open, Draper says he must now ensure that his hip injury is sufficiently treated and he does not compound the issue by continuing to take painkillers and play through the pain. After focusing on rehabilitation of his hip, Draper may opt to take an injection in order to help the injury but he is convinced that it will not be a serious issue if he makes the right decisions now.
“There are such short windows in tennis to get your body right,” said Draper. “You don’t want to just spike your load so much, and that’s what I have done here, and that’s why I got injured. All tennis injuries or most injuries in sport, unless it’s a freak accident, is all load management. If you do too much too soon, if I went and hit a thousand serves tomorrow, I’d probably have an ab strain because I have done so much in one day. Everything is load management.
“Obviously here I have come and I played a ridiculous amount of tennis and I have broken down. The key to stay injury-free and being consistent is having that consistency in your body time where you’re injury-free, time to train, time to get your body right. If you’re dealing with injuries and playing through pain and taking painkillers and doing all that, then it’s not ideal.
“You’re always going to have stress through your body, but it’s important for me to just get my training load back up again, get this tendinitis or whatever I have going on sorted, so I can be consistent with everything that I’m doing again.”
Draper is currently scheduled to compete in the Rotterdam Open on 3 February but it is unclear when he will next compete.
