Wimbledon | Draper to skip grass court season

Sad news for British tennis following the announcement last week that Jack Draper has been forced to skip Wimbledon.

In fact, the 21-year-old will miss the entire grass court season courtesy of a shoulder injury he picked up in Paris last week when he was forced to retired in his first-round match at the French Open where he was making his debut in the senior draw against Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

“It’s clear my shoulder is going to need time and rehab to get back to where it needs to be,” Draper wrote on Instagram.

“My team and I have made the difficult decision to miss the grass-court season this year.”

He added: “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. Thank you for all the support, it means a lot.”

Draper was losing 6-4 1-0 to Etcheverry when he had to withdraw after having to serve underarm at times in the opening set.

“It’s difficult. It’s extremely tough, tougher than playing and losing. I feel a bit mentally destroyed,” he said at the time after the match.

“It’s really frustrating. But I will get there. It’s just a brutal sport. I hate being the guy who is injured a lot.”

Ranked 55th in the world, Draper has suffered a number of physical problems in his young career. This was the third successive Grand Slam match where his performance had been affected by injury.