{"id":97293,"date":"2026-02-04T06:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97293"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:31:11","slug":"draper-confirms-comeback-after-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/04\/draper-confirms-comeback-after-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cVery Special for Me\u201d: Jack Draper Confirms Tennis Comeback After Injury Layoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world of tennis never stops, and after the first Major of the year concluded in dramatic fashion<\/a>, the focus now shifts to tour tournaments across the globe, as well as the Davis Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Alongside the on-court action, the injury status of several players remains in question, including some of the most promising young talents in the sport. One of those names is none other than Jack Draper, who, after a lengthy delay, is set to return to the tour this month.<\/p>\n

Draper Confirms February Comeback<\/h2>\n

Abrupt Setback<\/h3>\n

Jack Draper\u2019s rise into the top five last year<\/a> was one of the defining storylines of the first half of the 2025 season, with many believing the Brit could be the player to challenge the Sinner\u2013Alcaraz duopoly in the years to come.<\/p>\n

However, that momentum was abruptly halted when an arm injury not only hampered Draper\u2019s 2025 season but also limited him to just a handful of matches from Wimbledon onwards. The issue ultimately forced him to end his season prematurely after\u00a0the US Open.<\/p>\n

Alarm bells truly began to ring when it was revealed that the injury would also keep Draper out of the first Major of 2026<\/a>, raising significant concerns over the long-term fitness of a player who has historically been more fragile than some of his peers. Those doubts, however, are now set to be put aside, with Draper scheduled to make his long-awaited return this week.<\/p>\n

Davis Cup Return<\/h3>\n

Draper is set to feature for Team Great Britain in their Davis Cup first-round qualifiers against Norway<\/a> this coming weekend, opting for a team environment as his route back to professional tennis after a lengthy absence from the tour.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his decision to return via the Davis Cup rather than an official ATP singles tournament, Draper admitted<\/a> he wanted to reconnect with something close to his heart before resuming full-time tour competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being a part of that team environment is very special for me. I care about my country a lot. I love playing for Great Britain and to be around the other boys. It\u2019s just going to be an amazing feeling once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draper will be joined by Cameron Norrie, Jacob Fearnley, and reigning Wimbledon doubles champions Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool as Great Britain look to overcome Norway in the first round of qualifiers, with the road to Bologna now officially underway.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world of tennis never stops, and after the first Major of the year concluded in dramatic fashion, the focus now shifts to tour tournaments across the globe, as well as the Davis Cup qualifiers. Alongside the on-court action, the injury status of several players remains in question, including some of the most promising young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":84527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[259,182,12,11131],"class_list":["post-97293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-news","tag-atp-tour","tag-davis-cup","tag-great-britain","tag-jack-draper"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97293"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97339,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97293\/revisions\/97339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}