Will you play this time, Draper?

The Brit has been pulling out of tournaments left and right...

Here we go, another Draper preview; hopefully it is not all for nothing again ;) It has been a very disappointing 12 months or so for Jack; he has been unable to string tournaments together due to the injury. Everything looked fine for Washington; he was feeling physically well... and then he withdrew. However, keep in mind that Jack has a wildcard here in Montreal now, and he also has one in Cincinnati coming up... and both are Masters 1000 tournaments, compared to Washington, which was an ATP 500. There are also more rest days between matches in these "two-week Masters", so perhaps it was more of a tactical choice, rather than the injury bothering him a lot?

Anyway, he got a really unfortunate first-round draw... Atmane! I really liked Terence's first match in Washington; he played great in a tough night match with a huge atmosphere against Tiafoe. Despite losing in straight-sets to Tabilo, it was not a bad match for him either; Tabilo was simply on fire in Washington... he went on to beat Shelton after as well.

Draper's last loss was actually to another left-handed Frenchman... Humbert (in Eastbourne, 7-5, 6-3). I think it would be a lot easier for Draper to face players that are more defensive and have less power; that way he can start working his way into form without being in too much danger. Now, it will be crazy shots from start to finish. We know that Draper tends to find his level quite fast when coming back from injuries, but we still need to consider it as a factor.