{"id":89119,"date":"2026-07-23T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/89119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:04:09","slug":"the-rollercoaster-return-to-the-court-for-britains-sweetheart-jack-draper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/89119\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rollercoaster Return To The Court For Britain\u2019s Sweetheart Jack Draper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Chloe Wellington-Hunt<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">British star Jack Draper has struggled to get back on the court this entire season. Just a few weeks ago, he withdrew the day before his first-round Wimbledon match, following his continued left-arm injury. Now, he\u2019s making an interesting move for his August match plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Draper has registered for the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnnaK_4ever\/status\/2079647550391378149\" rel=\"nofollow\">ATP Brownsburg Challenger event<\/a> in Indiana, August 10-16, 2026. Draper hasn\u2019t competed at a Challenger event since 2023, when he won the trophy at the Bergamo Challenger in Italy. Notably, Brownsburg takes place during the second week of the Canada Masters and the first week of the Cincinnati Open. (Nishesh Basavareddy, the American who had his first Top 10 win at Roland Garros when he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYu3JSZFU_1\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beat<\/a> Taylor Fritz, will also play in the event. Basavareddy is a name to follow for the rest of the season, now ranked 146 in the world.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Draper has a tough journey back to the top of the sport, now sitting at 147 in ATP singles rankings, after reaching a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/jack-draper\/d0co\/rankings-history\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">career-high ranking<\/a> of No.4 in June 2025. Draper spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/jack-draper\/d0co\/rankings-history?year=all\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">all<\/a> of 2025 in the top 20, but without any protected ranking, the star must grapple with little margin for error as the season unfolds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While fellow countrymen Arthur Fery, Jan Choinski, Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter, and Emma Radacanu are in the US Open main draw entry lists, Draper is listed as an alternate, for now. 14 British players are on the \u2018alternates\u2019 list for the 2026 US Open. Another player sidelined from the main draw is Grigor Dimitrov. Considering that there\u2019s over 40 players ahead of the pair, Dimitrov and Draper will either have to qualify or receive a wildcard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Brit isn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hard-court.com\/p\/jack-draper-wimbledon-mental-toll-injuries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">too frightened<\/a> about learning how to start over. Speaking with Jessica Schiffer at Wimbledon this year, he said, \u201c \u2018You always have to look at the positive side of things. I have to rebuild myself and I have to start again almost.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s now just a few days before Draper will be back on the court again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After getting a wildcard for the Mubadala DC Open, Draper prepares to rebuild. The climb back might not be glamorous, but he\u2019s hopeful that\u2019s where it begins.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DraperGRAPHIC-1024x682.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28544 lazyload\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DraperGRAPHIC.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28544 lazyload\"  \/>Discover more from World Tennis Magazine<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px;font-size:15px\">Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Chloe Wellington-Hunt British star Jack Draper has struggled to get back on the court this entire season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,16181],"class_list":["post-89119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-jack-draper"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116971324805711887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}