Draper blows six set points in Cincinnati loss, says chronic arm injury is sapping his spirit

Draper's Cincinnati exit

Jack Draper's comeback from a chronic arm injury hit another low Thursday at the Cincinnati Open, where the 24-year-old Briton fell 6-3, 7-5 to Spain's Martín Landaluce in the first round. Draper led 5-2 in the second set and held six set points to force a decider, but the 20-year-old world No. 64 won five consecutive games to close out the match in under two hours. Draper finished with 47 unforced errors and 12 double faults, offsetting 27 winners. The loss comes a week after Draper broke down in tears during a first-round defeat to France's Térence Atmane at the Canadian Open in Montreal.

He has played only 14 tour matches this season and just his second match since June, having missed Wimbledon and the Washington Open with bone bruising in his left arm. Draper, now ranked No. 143 according to The New York Times, or as low as 160th per the BBC, described the mental toll after the match.

“It's the same as last week, the way I'm usually able to fight for every ball and conduct myself, it's just missing. After last week, I put in a lot of hard work to play a bit better this week. Obviously, the conditions and all the things that I'm changing is very hard to manage, but I think from just an internal point of view, it's a difficult place to be right now.”

Ranking collapse and injury trail

Draper achieved a career-high No. 4 ranking in June 2025. Since injuring his shoulder at the US Open in August 2025, he has struggled with bone bruising in his left arm and has barely played. He withdrew from the second round of that tournament and has since missed nearly a full season earlier in his career with injuries to his hip, shoulder and abdominal muscles. Upon returning from the bone bruising at this year's Barcelona Open, he suffered a flare-up of tendinitis in his right knee.

To compensate for the left-arm injury, Draper has changed his strings, his racket and his service motion, reverting to a pin-point serve stance and adding natural gut to his stringing setup. He has also consulted biomechanics expert Carlos Cano, a 61-year-old Mexican who previously helped Arthur Fery become British No. 1. Draper said he does not expect to receive a singles wild card into the US Open and is unsure where he will play next. He has signed up for US Open mixed doubles with Jessica Pegula, though the duo would likely need a wild card to gain entry.

“From the start of the match, you're battling it a lot and you're trying to keep going with it and moving forwards throughout the match and trying to... pump stuff up and give you energy, but it just suppresses you down. It's got to a point with me where it's taken probably one of my biggest qualities, my fighting spirit.”

Winners27

Unforced errors47

Double faults12

Winners

27

Unforced errors

47

Double faults

12

Data from the article text

Other first-round results

Rinky Hijikata rallied to beat Gael Monfils 2-6, 7-6, 6-3, the Australian's first ATP hard-court win. Monfils, 39, was making his 14th and final Cincinnati appearance before retiring at the end of 2026 and received a standing ovation from the crowd. Cameron Norrie defeated Dino Prizmic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to set up a second-round meeting with top seed Alexander Zverev, who has beaten Norrie seven times without a loss at Tour level. Britain's Katie Boulter beat American Katie Volynets 5-7, 6-0, 6-4, and Taylor Townsend defeated Camila Osorio 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. The tournament lost Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz to injury withdrawals this week. Novak Djokovic, seeded third, is bidding to win the tournament for a fourth time.