Juan Martín Del Potro enjoyed an incredible career at the apex of tennis, despite all the hardships he had to battle.
In the end, his 2009 US Open title was a deserved triumph given what he had to endure, pretty much throughout his entire time playing.
Consistently plagued by a plethora of wrist and knee injuries, the Argentine, who still enjoyed a long and fruitful career, could have won so much more.
On his day, nobody, not even the Big Three, relished a meeting with Del Potro.
Where will Jack Draper be ranked by the end of 2026?
These experiences of dealing with injury arguably make him the perfect person to discuss Jack Draper’s recent struggles, as another hugely promising individual who could be snuffed out through no fault of his own.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Del Potro has now rated the standard of British tennis, with this supremely talented but injury-prone superstar leading the way.
Juan Martin Del Potro points out Jack Draper’s advantage over the ATP Tour
The 37-year-old began by outlining Draper’s unique skillset that makes him well placed to one day challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s ongoing dominance of the ATP Tour.
Del Potro admitted: “Well, as a lefty player, he has an advantage over the rest of the players.
“Draper is a talented player as well, but sometimes the body could be the worst thing in your career, as has happened with me, but he’s trying to get confidence in his body.”
Then, moving on to those injury concerns, he added: “He has the tennis to play well, but sometimes you need your body to respond to the highest intensity of the matches and tournaments every week, but I think British tennis is in good hands.”
Andy Roddick has predicted when Draper will return to tennis, but with no official communication since he vowed to fix his fitness concerns, it remains guesswork for now.
Jack Draper faces a huge ranking drop after latest injury setback
Having taken plenty of time to allow his shoulder injury to heal, which curtailed the second half of his 2025 season, it’s cruel that a new ailment has emerged of late.
After all, an issue with his knee forced him to retire midway through his match against Tomás Martín Etcheverry in Barcelona.
This comes at the worst possible time for the 24-year-old, who, around this time last year, built on his Indian Wells title with a really strong clay-court season too.
He reached the final in Madrid and the fourth round at Roland Garros, as well as the quarter-finals in Rome.
| Rank | Player | Ranking points |
| 73 | Kamil Majchrzak | 767 |
| 74 | Valentin Royer | 767 |
| 75 | Thiago Agustín Tirante | 765 |
| 76 | Jack Draper* | 760 |
| 77 | Marcos Giron | 750 |
| 78 | Marco Trungelliti | 737 |
| 79 | Mattia Bellucci | 734 |
This means that, across the next few weeks, Draper has 850 points to defend in Masters 1000 tournaments alone.
If his injury forces him out of one or both of these events, he faces surrendering all of those points and potentially dropping as low as 76th in the world.
