Heartbreak for Jack Draper as British star retires with injury - as tennis' new golden boy books his place in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open
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After a magical week of unlikely comebacks, reality set in for Jack Draper as he retired with injury after losing the first two sets of his fourth-round match against Carlos Alcaraz. Draper had pushed his once-fragile body to new extremes with three five set matches in a row, each time coming back from two sets to one down.
But after 12 hours and 34 minutes a physical reckoning was coming and the 23-year-old was in no fit state to test the might of Alcaraz. ‘It’s not the way I wanted to get through,’ said the 21-year-old No 3 seed, who is chasing the career Grand Slam here this fortnight. ‘I’m sad for Jack, he’s a nice person and he doesnt deserve to get injured. He couldn’t prepare properly for the season, we were meant to train for a week together (in Alicante).
‘I’m sure he’ll come back strongly as he always does.’. The first set was close but that was more to do with Alcaraz’s waywardness than anything coming off the Draper racket. Playing Alcaraz looks like a peculiar experience. He will give you plenty of unforced errors but can also conjure winners from the most implausible positions. He can make his opponent look like a bystander, the backing vocals to Alcaraz’s free-form jazz, and Draper never felt to have much agency in the match.
Alcaraz was dancing well inside the baseline to attack Draper’s second serve and generally trying to keep the points as short as possible, which one imagines suited Draper given his enfeebled state. After only two games he was shaking out his left leg.
