Emma Raducanu has been dealt a double blow ahead of the Australian Open
Emma Raducanu will have to navigate the start of the new tennis season without the support of Jack Draper, both on and off the court, due to his injury.
The 24-year-old has been sidelined since the US Open in late August, when an arm issue forced him to withdraw from his second-round match against Zizou Bergs.
Despite having pulled out of several tournaments over the past month due to delays in his recovery, Draper had planned to make his comeback Down Under, but those plans have now been shelved.
While this is a significant setback for Draper’s ambitions to regain the momentum he had earlier in the year, it also impacts Raducanu. Draper’s decision to sit out the Australian Open means he’ll also miss the United Cup – a tournament where he was slated to play alongside Raducanu as part of Team GB, just a week before the major event.
This would have marked the first time the British stars teamed up to represent their country in an official team event. Draper’s absence will undoubtedly be a blow to Team GB. Not only will Raducanu and her team-mates need to find a replacement for the tournament, but she will also miss his inspirational presence at the year’s first major.
The 23-year-old has trained alongside her fellow Brit previously, and it was at Wimbledon this summer that she revealed how they’ve backed one another whilst emerging as the leading lights of British tennis.
Raducanu explained how they push one another to be their best, saying: “It’s amazing. I’ve known him for so long, so many years, and when we were both pretty promising juniors, and now to be British No. 1 on both men and women’s side as the real thing is, it’s pretty cool.
“He’s doing so well right now so this Wimbledon, I’m sure, for him, will feel different. But he’s in a great place, and hopefully his seeding can help him.
“You see so many Brits in the draw, and you see them win their match so you want to win your match. It’s healthy competition, because you don’t want to be the one left behind. And I think that’s a good thing, and it’s not coming from any bad place.
“It’s just like, ‘Okay, I want to do the same and then keep going as much as I can.’ It keeps us on our toes. It keeps us hungry to improve. I know I’m going to have to bring a really good level of tennis on Monday if I want to get through it.”
Draper revealed his decision to pull out of the major tournament through a video posted on X, explaining: “Hello everybody, instead of writing out a message, I thought I’d send a little video recording to let you know of my progress. Unfortunately me and my team have decided not to head out to Australia this year.
“It’s a really, really tough decision with Australia being a Grand Slam and one of the biggest tournaments in our sport. However I’ve had this injury for a long time. I’m at the very, very end stages of the process. To step back on court into best-of-five-set tennis so soon just doesn’t seem like a smart decision for me and my tennis.”
He went on to say: “I’ve obviously been through a fair amount of setbacks so far but by far and away, this one has been the most difficult, the most challenging and the most complex one that I’ve had. “It’s weird, it always seems to make me more resilient, to make me hungrier to become the player I want to become even more.
“I’m looking forward to getting back out there in 2026 and competing. I just want to thank everyone for all the support in 2025. It means the world to me to be competing and to be playing out there on the tour with the other guys. I’m looking forward to doing that again. Take care everyone and thank you for the support.”
