Jack Draper withdraws from Wimbledon with arm injury
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- Jack Draper withdrew from Wimbledon due to a recurrence of his arm injury, ruling the 24-year-old out of his scheduled first-round match against sixth seed Taylor Fritz on Centre Court on Tuesday
- Draper said the withdrawal was "the absolute worst" of his painful 12 months, adding that "there is no greater honour for a British player than playing at Wimbledon"
- Draper's injury problems stretch back to last year's Wimbledon, when bone bruising in his arm kept him out for nearly seven months; a knee injury then forced him to miss almost the entire clay-court season
- Emma Raducanu also withdrew from the Grand Slam, while Cam Norrie and Harriet Dart crashed out in Monday's first round, completing what the source calls a "nightmare 24 hours for British tennis"
- Just one day before pulling out, the former world No. 4 Draper had publicly warned that the injury crisis in elite tennis is "pretty worrying," pointing to problems for Lorenzo Musetti, Arthur Fils, and Carlos Alcaraz's wrist
- Draper criticised the toll of the Masters 1000s' 12-day events, saying "the tournaments are going to suffer a lot if not much changes" and calling on the tour to "take a close look at what we're doing"
Why it matters: With both Draper and Raducanu out before the first round, British tennis loses its two highest-profile home players at its flagship tournament — a particularly costly blow for Draper, a former world No. 4 who has already played only a handful of events in the past year and is now adding another layoff to an injury-ravaged 2025-26 campaign.
