US OPEN

August 25, 2025

Jack Draper

Press Conference

J. DRAPER/F. Agustin Gomez

6-4, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Jack, congratulations. If you would, your thoughts on today's match.

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, it was a tough match. Obviously haven't played competitively singles-wise for a while now. Yeah, like, credit to him. I thought he played some good stuff at times.

Yeah, from my side it wasn't obviously my finest performance. But at the same time, you know, there was some problem-solving out there, there was some different things, some really good stuff, some very average stuff.

But at the same time, give myself another chance on Thursday. Just really proud of the fact that I'm here and that I'm able to come through today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Was the arm a factor at all out there? It seemed like your service speed was maybe down from where we're used to seeing it.

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, you know, I've definitely had to rein in my serve a little bit to make sure to keep the pain down, that's for sure. At the same time, though, I feel like my accuracy is almost a bit better at times.

So, yeah, it's definitely something which is not giving me pain like on my serve and that's not why I'm doing it, but it's one of those things where I'm having to -- put it this way, the ramp-up is quite quick to be here, so I couldn't sort of go full out on the serve the last few weeks. I've got used to kind of maybe toning it down a little bit.

Yes, I'm not serving full out, pretty much.

Q. Given you've not played for so long, is this a test that's useful and necessary for you in the long run?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I needed tennis in my legs. I needed to play, you know, a three-hour match. I was almost, you know, a bit happy when I lost the third, because my level wasn't amazing. Then I felt like towards the end of the fourth I started to get better and better. It was good to get a bit of competitive tennis in my legs, and obviously in the Grand Slams you get a lot of time to be able to do that.

Q. We saw the sickness in the third set just as you were about to serve. Brought back memories of the semifinals last year. Can you explain why that was? What was the reason? Was it anxiety, tension perhaps?

JACK DRAPER: No, I mean, I felt physically fine. Yeah, potentially a bit of nervous energy. I wasn't feeling nervous out there. Sometimes I've always had some problems with my gut almost. So, you know, could be a little bit of just getting out there again, a bit of nervous tension.

But, yeah, it wasn't kind of affecting me at all. I wasn't physically struggling or anything. It was just I have had problems with my gut over time, so it's probably that.

Q. You said on court afterwards that you thought you might not make it here this year.

JACK DRAPER: Yeah.

Q. Were there times, a particular moment where you can remember after Wimbledon where you thought you would have to pull out of the US Open, as well?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously a recovery process. You know, with the injury I had in my arm, the return to competition is probably about eight weeks; I'm here seven weeks, so I'm early.

You know, in any rehab process, there's always, you know, there's good days and then there's bad days. There's days where you're, like, really pumped because you think you're on a good path, and then there's days where you have setbacks and you think, oh, I might not be able to do it.

There's been a lot of both of those days, but at the same time, I think as I've gotten closer to the tournament, me and my team, you know, we've had more scans, we're confident that I'm not doing any more damage to my arm, and I'm in a place where I can go out and compete. You know, it's not going to set me back, so that's a real positive. That's all I can say.

Q. With the arm over the next couple of months will you have to be careful with your schedule as you work back to complete, full strength with it?

JACK DRAPER: You know, I don't know. Don't know where I'm at with it. All I know is that, no, I'm going to be playing a full schedule, I believe. You know, obviously you asked about my serve speeds and all that sort of thing. You know, I still feel like I'm building up with getting everything back to 100%.

It's just one of those where I'm having not to be going full out all the time. Yeah, like, there's nothing that's holding me back from playing hopefully more and more tournaments as I go along. Obviously we'll go day by day and see how it is, but at the same time, I'm planning on playing a full schedule till the end of the year.

Q. Is your hope then as the tournament goes on you could ramp up further so you won't have to rein it in or you're kind of resigned to the fact that that's what it's going to be like for tournament?

JACK DRAPER: Well, again, taking it day by day. But it's not like I wouldn't play if I didn't believe that I can get to being 100% on what I'm doing.

You know, it's just, there's also no need for me to be going, like, crazy sometimes on it.

Yeah, I mean, I don't really know what to say really on that front. I just have time in front of me. I think I have two days now again till Thursday. It's getting better each time, each day, like, more recovery process.

I think also competing, there's more adrenaline that's going to help me to -- I don't know, it's about the load of what I'm doing, you know. At the start, you know, you're kind of building up your load. The more times I'm playing two-and-a-half hours, three hours, that's going to help my arm adapt to that new feeling. Today it responded amazing.

So I think part of it is just building confidence and letting the arm adapt, as well.

Q. You mentioned obviously the serve speed, but is there anything else in your game that you feel is slightly limited at the moment by your arm?

JACK DRAPER: No, not in my own mind. You know, even the service, like, I can crack it if I want to. It's just that, you know, it's probably not necessary sometimes for me to always be doing that. Because like I said, like, you know, I've been ramping up. I don't need to fully ramp up so quick.

So the main thing is I'm here. I'm here competing hard, and I'm not doing any more damage to my arm.

At the same time, you know, I'm still going day by day and just making sure I'm doing all the right things to make sure I'm not putting myself in a position where, you know, I'm not doing anything stupid.

Q. You mentioned at the beginning that the pain is the limitation, to avoid having the pain. Have you experienced such pain and then brought it back a little bit because you had that experience, or is this something that you anticipate you might have if you do crack it at top speed?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I mean, like, in any recovery process, you learn what works for certain things. You know, for me, on my return to stuff, we tried to, you know, go for low amount of serves but at full pelt, and that responded not so amazing.

So right now I'm building my serves at a certain pace, and then, you know, the more I do that, the more my arm is going to adapt, the more I can go after it more.

So part of it is just being smart with how I'm doing things. But, yeah, we'll see. You'll see me crack a few out there. That's for sure.