Jack Draper returned to the ATP Tour, winning his first tournament match since last year’s U.S. Open in Dubai on Monday. The 24-year-old Englishman with a military-style crew cut shrewdly defeated Frenchman Quentin Halys 7-6(8) 6-3.
The victory was Draper’s second of the season, after defeating Norway’s Viktor Durasovic in a Davis Cup qualifier earlier this month.
“I’m really happy to be back,” said the world No. 15, who reached a career-high fourth in the world rankings last June. “I think [I am at] Now is my recovery phase and I hope to be able to compete every week. I know it’s not easy coming back [to top form]. Sometimes I have to remind myself of this, even when I want to get things done as quickly as possible. I’d been away from the tour for a long time and all of a sudden I was seeing these guys again in tournaments and they were great players. ”
Draper suffered a bone bruise last year on his humerus, which runs from the elbow to the shoulder, and eventually found he couldn’t play through the pain. Fear that he might suffer a more serious stress fracture ultimately forced him to take action.
“It was actually a very, very serious injury,” Draper said of the arm injury he first felt last spring in Madrid and ended his 2025 season after the U.S. Open. “When I first started experiencing some symptoms last year in Madrid, I just wanted to keep going. But the aftermath was quite difficult. There were a lot of ups and downs, a lot of pain, a lot of time spent off the field, not being able to do the things I love.”
Draper has taken positive lessons from this difficult time, saying he has learned about his body and how to strike a balance between taking care of his health and playing without worries.
“I’m always trying to keep improving and keep learning,” he said. “I learned a lot about my body, about recovery, and maybe things I didn’t learn [understand in] Enough detail before, I have to move on.
“I think mentally, when you go through a lot of adversity, it changes you and makes you more resilient,” he said. “I know I still have a long way to go in my career. I know that hopefully those big things that I want to achieve are still possible. Just to not come back too early or make things worse in the long run.”
