Wimbledon 2026: Why Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu called it quits – Debating the Greatest Players

For players returning from injury, balancing the demands of the court and the risk of aggravation is difficult.

Former England player Naomi Brodie told BBC TV: “It’s very difficult to play an individual sport. You can’t be isolated.

“You can’t play 20 or 30 minutes and then build up. You just have to play day in and day out for a week.”

“It’s a lot of stress on your body. If it’s not the same injury, it’s growing new.”

Both Draper and Raducanu seem to have found their worth.

Draper, 24, had not played competitively for more than two months before making four appearances at Eastbourne last week.

He pulled out of Wimbledon – his first Grand Slam of the season – when a fracture in his service arm flared up again.

Raducanu, 23, believes overplaying at Queen’s two weeks ago may have contributed to a stress fracture in her lower right leg.

The 2021 US Open champion played five matches in six days and has been sidelined for most of the past four months, having previously played the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in less than 30 hours due to rain delays.

“It’s very difficult to allow time for injuries to heal and gradually build up the load when you come back,” Brody said.

“I think when you come back too fast that’s where most of the injuries happen again. That’s why we say how relentless our sport is.”