Jack Draper will miss Wimbledon because of the shoulder injury he suffered at the French Open last week. It is a huge blow to the 21-year-old, whose progress has been disrupted by a series of injuries.
Draper suffered the injury in practice before his first-round match at Roland Garros against Tomas Etcheverry last Monday. The British No 4 was forced to serve underarm at times before retiring after only one game of the second set.
While hugely disappointed that his body had again let him down, Draper was optimistic the problem with his left shoulder would not disrupt his grass-court campaign too much. Having had a scan and seen a specialist, however, Draper has decided to miss the whole of the British summer season.
“It’s clear my shoulder is going to need time and rehab to get back to where it needs to be. My team and I have made the difficult decision to miss the grass court season this year,” Draper wrote on Instagram.
“I guess in this sport there are so many ups and downs but this one is tough to take. The only thing for sure is that I will keep persevering.”
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Draper is hopeful he will not need surgery and is hoping to return to the match court in mid to late July.
When he has been fit, Draper has shown he has the potential to be among the best in the world but that has not been nearly as often as he would have liked. Last season a promising run to the third round of the US Open was ended by a leg injury and illness disrupted his pre-season.
Draper has already missed large chunks of this year’s calendar with hip and abdominal problems. In Paris last week, the Londoner said he felt “mentally destroyed”, adding: “I hate being the guy who is injured a lot.”
Draper made his Wimbledon debut in 2021, losing to Novak Djokovic, while last year he pushed Alex De Minaur to four sets in the second round. His absence is a further blow to home hopes at SW19, with Emma Raducanu already ruled out of the event.
Evans suffers shock Surbiton exit
Andy Murray is the only British man left in singles at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy after Dan Evans suffered a shock second-round loss.
Evans was the top seed after taking a late wild card following his early French Open defeat but was toppled 7-5 6-2 by 21-year-old Canadian Gabriel Diallo, ranked more than 100 places below him. It has been a difficult season so far for 33-year-old Evans, who will hope to fare better in Nottingham next week, where he is the defending champion.
There is a lot more home representation in the women’s draw, where Katie Boulter needs one more victory to overtake Emma Raducanu as British No 1. The eighth seed battled to a 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory over countrywoman Sonay Kartal to reach the quarter-finals, where she will face Swiss Viktorija Golubic.
Hewett advances to French Open final
Alfie Hewett will play for a fourth French Open wheelchair singles title after beating Gustavo Fernández 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-finals on Thursday.
The world No 1 eased to victory over his Argentinian opponent, turning the tables after losing heavily to the third seed in the Roland Garros semis last year. Hewett is chasing a third straight grand slam singles title after winning the US Open and Australian Open.
His opponent in Melbourne, the 17-year-old Japanese player Tokito Oda, will be on the other side of the net again in Paris. The pair are first and second in the world rankings but Hewett has won all three of their meetings this year, and prevailed in the Australian Open final for the loss of only four games.