'I definitely feel a lot sharper': Jack Draper shuts down fitness concerns ahead of US Open

Britain’s Jack Draper has opened up about his ambitions for the upcoming US Open despite still struggling with an arm injury. The 23-year-old will be entering the fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year as the fifth-seed player, only behind the likes of world number one and defending champion Jannik Sinner, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and America’s Taylor Fritz.

Draper is coming into the competition after taking a lengthy break after featuring at Wimbledon, where he was knocked out after losing in the second round to Croatia’s Marin Cilic with a score of 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. Draper recently returned to the court and featured in the revamped US Open mixed doubles event, where he and his partner, America’s Jessica Pegula, were eventually knocked out after losing in the semifinal to the pair of Casper Ruud and Iga Swiatek.

Draper’s decision not to feature in any event after Wimbledon in the singles category is to recover from an army injury that he suffered during the clay season. Draper has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of his tournament opener in New York and talked in detail about the impact of the injury he suffered earlier this season. Draper also highlighted that while he has not recovered completely from the injury, he expects to go all in when he appears at the US Open.

"I first started feeling it towards the middle of the clay season," said Draper. "I felt like my arm was shutting down a little bit when I was hitting forehands and on the serve, as well. It kind of got progressively a bit worse. Then on the grass it got quite painful. I didn't know what I was dealing with. After the grass, I got it checked out. I had some bone stress, bone bruising, in my humerus on my left side. It is one of those where, if you keep playing with it, it could become very serious. I had to take some time out. Saying that, it was not so bad, because I could obviously do a lot of other things physically. It wasn't like I had to stop completely. Tough injury to have, but definitely one where I had to look after it. It's an injury which takes time to heal. It might be giving me some discomfort, that's for sure. It's not something which I'm going to go out on Monday and feel like it's holding me back at all."

Staying optimistic

Overall, Draper is having an impressive season on the court in the singles category, where he has won 29 out of 38 matches. Those victories include his maiden ATP 1000 title at the Indian Wells, where he defeated Denmark’s Casper Ruud in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2. Draper will be facing Argentina’s Federico Agustin Gomez in the first round of the US Open on Monday. Talking about his preparation for this year’s edition of the tournament, where he played in the semifinals last year, Draper expressed optimism that his preparation is complete and also highlighted the positive impact of participating in the US Open mixed doubles event with Pegula.

“I have been training a lot the last month or so, physically really pushed myself hard, and that makes me feel mentally really good about myself," said Draper. "I'm just really excited to be back here at the US Open and back competing, doing what I like doing best. It [playing the mixed doubles event] was kind of perfect for me because I hadn't had any competition, I hadn't felt that feeling of playing in front of people and that sort of stuff for a little while. It was a really positive experience for myself, and I definitely feel a lot sharper having played that as opposed to maybe having a training week."