This time last year Jack Draper was heading into Wimbledon as the No 4 seed with a genuine shot at the title.
On Sunday, the man now ranked 113th in the world sat before a huddle of journalists in Eastbourne and bared his soul after 12 months in which his body has been ravaged by injury. Twelve months which left him fearing he will never be the same player again.
As the 24-year-old pushed his body through rehab and his mind through darkness, he watched ranking points achieved through sweat and blood and brilliance drain away.
‘It’s like watching your decline,’ says Draper. ‘I’m someone who’s all in with my tennis. I’m obsessed with improving and being the best in the world. Outside of tennis, there’s not a lot going on for me. It’s been very difficult, very isolated, a lot of tough days.’
Hoping those days are behind him, Draper will make his first appearance of the grass season on Monday against American Brandon Nakashima, here in Eastbourne. It is also his first match under the auspices of coach Andy Murray.
‘I feel like I’m able to be the player I want to be again on the court,’ he insists. ‘Which is a great thing after a year of struggle.’
British star Jack Draper has revealed the depth of his year-long injury hell for the first time
Draper has Andy Murray as his coach now as he looks to return to his best and be injury-free
To chart that 12 months of struggle: the first setback, in the middle of last year, was bone bruising in the left arm in which he holds the racket. ‘I just hit a point where it wasn’t improving for months, I couldn’t get up to 100 per cent on my serve,’ he says, speaking about these injury problems in detail for the first time. ‘I kept on having setbacks. A bone injury is so tough because even though it was healing, it couldn’t withstand the demands of the way I play. It goes into your elbow, it goes into your biceps.’
Draper accepts the possibility he may have to play through pain in his arm for the rest of his career. ‘These injuries are just so complicated,’ he says. ‘Who knows, it might never go away.’
At his wits’ end, Draper changed the stance on his serve and, he reveals, switched from polyester strings to the more forgiving animal gut (made from cow’s intestines) to limit the impact on his arm.
‘It was a nightmare, I had to completely adjust my game style,’ he says.
‘I was able to play through (the bone bruising). I tried to be explosive again, get back to where I wanted to be, but I started to get knee tendinitis, which I played with for months. It got to the point in Barcelona (this April) when it was extremely inflamed. I had a couple of holes in the tendon.
‘I had been playing in pain for a long time, and having two chronic things, which are extremely painful, was just too much.
‘I couldn’t be the player I wanted to be. I was 30 per cent of what I can do. From there I was like, I’d rather just get these things sorted so I can actually compete how I want to. Not go out playing with gut strings, doing stuff just to be there.’
So began the grind of rehab. Given the timing of his return, just before Wimbledon, it is tempting to suggest Draper is rushing himself back. He is unequivocal: ‘No, I’m not playing because it’s the grass season. I’m coming back at the point where I’m going to stay on court from now on.’
Murray has helped enormously, says Draper. ‘Andy’s taken a look at my tennis and worked on some stuff, biomechanical changes on my serve which seem to be really helping. His tennis knowledge is incredible but more so in the place I’m at right now, where I’ve lost a lot of confidence in my body, having someone who believes in you as a person and as a player, who is one of your biggest inspirations… it is very special. I need to have that good energy around me.’
There must certainly have been a lack of good energy over the past 12 months. Did the thought ever arise that he might never return to the sport? ‘No, not at all, potentially never be the same,’ he admits, ‘but never not come back to playing. But obviously the next question mark is how quickly I’m able to get back to being at the top again.’
