Après trois marathons et 12h36 de jeu en seulement trois matchs, Jack Draper s'est présenté amoindri pour son huitième de finale de l'Open d'Australie face à Carlos Alcaraz. Mené deux manches à rien (7-5, 6-1), le Britannique s'est retiré, laissant l'Espagnol filer en quarts. Ce n'est pas la meilleure manière de conclure un tournoi pour Draper, gêné à la hanche et sans compétition depuis Bercy, fin octobre. Il avait d'ailleurs déclaré forfait à Sydney. Il reste tout de même un motif de satisfaction : il devrait atteindre le Top 15 ATP lundi prochain.
Photo : @AustralianOpen
Photo : @AustralianOpen
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00:00Yeah, I mean, just I think after how much I played, you know, I didn't pull up amazingly
00:10well. I was really, really sore after I played my last match and, you know, I'm already obviously
00:19managing this hip thing, which, you know, I've been managing all the last week or so
00:26and I've done actually, I mean, I wasn't expecting to, you know, come this far in all honesty.
00:36And obviously with all the hours that I've played, it's just been a bit too much on my
00:40body and I feel like today, you know, from the first couple of games, I felt like, you
00:49know, everything getting worse and, yeah, not ideal to end this way.
00:56Just clarify a little bit more what the injury is and how long you've had it and how it manifests
01:02itself when you're out there, you know, where you feel the pain.
01:05Yeah, I mean, essentially I had, you know, tendinitis in my hip, which I had to get MRI
01:18looked at and stuff like because I've had a history of problems in that area, you know,
01:26and like it hasn't gone away. I'm still dealing with that and obviously the pre-season that
01:32went into my back and I couldn't walk and it was really difficult and obviously I come
01:36here and I've been managing that and, you know, I've been unbelievably surprised with
01:44how much I've been able to play and put my body through more than I have ever done before,
01:50especially. So, yeah, I think it's just one of those things, just massive overload and
01:58this area of my body, you know, if I don't get that right and I don't make good decisions,
02:05like, you know, I don't want to miss three or four months, you know, because of that,
02:09you know.
02:10Jonathan.
02:11How did you decide enough was enough stage? Have you been thinking about it for a few
02:14games or?
02:15I mean, from the third game, I felt like it was getting worse. Actually, when I woke up
02:24this morning, I didn't feel too bad, but, you know, when I got out there and Carlos's
02:30intensity and, you know, I think it's such a violent sport, you know, you're putting
02:36your body in positions all the time and I'm someone who throws my body around and gives
02:44it my all sort of thing. So, you know, from the third game, I felt like I had sort of
02:51multiple areas that were, you know, really, really, you know, in some pain and especially
02:57the hips.
02:58Was there any question you might not have played at all?
03:02I mean, we were managing it like I didn't feel amazing before my last match, but obviously
03:10got out there and it felt OK. Maybe it's a little bit of a ticking time on considering,
03:17you know, I had no preparation and no work for my body and then to come here, like I
03:23think, yeah, I've really surprised myself with how much I've been able to put myself
03:28through.
03:29Is it all about, I mean, is it complete unknown how it will go from here or do you sort of
03:35feel like you have some idea of how long it will take or what to do with it?
03:41Yeah, I mean, I think I'm going to, firstly, I have to just sort of clear up the tendonitis
03:49I've got. You know, there's two ways you can do that. It's obviously by doing rehab or
03:55there's maybe an injection you can have into that area to help it. I opted to do the rehab.
04:02So but obviously, yeah, it hasn't cleared too much. So maybe I'll see what I can do
04:09with that. I don't think, yeah, like it's not like a long term thing at all. I just
04:19need to need to be sensible because, you know, there's no escape from it, especially like
04:25here or whatever. You know, the tennis schedule is so tight. So obviously, I had to miss Sydney,
04:31but then it's straight here. I've got obviously lots of lots of events coming up and I want
04:37to have a good consistent year. You know, I've been I've been on a good run in the last
04:4218 months of being pretty relatively injury free and that's allowed me to play the tennis
04:47I want to play and play well in these big tournaments and and all those sorts of things.
04:51So I don't want to get myself in a position where I'm sort of, you know, just kind of
04:58playing through pain and playing through injury. Like I want to be able to show up to these
05:03events and give it my best shot and have the right preparation I need.
05:06Jack, can you just outline for us in terms of the preseason that you did have, how much
05:11of that, you know, was it a few days you were full all out or did you get a couple of weeks?
05:16How much time did you actually have where you could train fully?
05:19When I was full, probably about four days, like when I came here, four days before tournament,
05:24I started playing points. So yeah, I mean, I had a couple of weeks off after Paris, then
05:33I went into preseason. I did about a week's preseason, then this happened and then I didn't
05:39play for about two and a half, three weeks. And then I came here, started the preparation
05:4810 days before and I only started playing points about what day did I play to, I played
05:56on Monday or Tuesday. So I would have started playing points on the Saturday, probably.
06:01So I mean, considering everything, you know, I'm incredibly proud of my efforts. My tennis
06:10has been pretty bang average, you know, the whole week, you know, it's been really poor
06:15actually. But like, it's been my competitiveness, my fight and my desire to win. And that's
06:23got me into like in the last 16 of a grand slam, which is something I'm very proud of.
06:29You can take pride from that, but how disappointing is it to go out on one of the sport's biggest
06:35stages and just not be able to perform how you want to be able to perform?
06:40Yeah, it's really difficult. I was, you know, any chance I get to play Carlos or someone
06:46of his calibre, you know, it's a great opportunity for me to show them about and show that I
06:52can be a top player as well and be at their level. And, you know, these are the type of
06:59matches I want to be a part of and win and go deep in these big events. It's tough to
07:04do that, obviously, with the amount of tennis I've played and I've sort of put through my
07:10body, especially against someone like him, because you kind of need that explosiveness.
07:14You need to feel good about yourself. And obviously, when you're really struggling,
07:19it's not ideal at all. And yeah, it's really disappointing. I never like to pull out. I'm
07:28someone who likes to give my all for everything, but I'm aware with injuries, especially in
07:35the past. I just want to make right decisions, you know, because I don't want months out.
07:42I want to be able to hopefully be able to play and get consistent in my body and everything again.
07:52How willing are you to take a short-term hit if it means in the long term there's a benefit?
08:00Would you be prepared to take some time out?
08:04I mean, it's not really about the time out. It's about, you know, this. There's such short
08:13windows in tennis to get your body right. You don't want to just sort of spike your
08:23load so much. And that's kind of what I've done here. And that's why I've got injured
08:27all tennis injuries or most injuries in sport, unless it's a freak accident, is all load
08:33management. If you do too much too soon, if, you know, if I went and hit a thousand
08:41serves tomorrow, I'll probably have an ab strain because I've done so much in one day.
08:46So everything is load management. So here I've obviously come and I've played a ridiculous
08:50amount of tennis and have broken down. The key to staying injury free and being consistent
08:56is, yeah, having that consistency in your body, time waiting, injury free, time to train,
09:02time to get your body right. And if you're kind of dealing with injuries and you're playing
09:06through pain and you're taking painkillers and you're doing all that, then it's not,
09:11you know, it's not ideal. Obviously, you're always going to have stress through your body
09:15and stuff. But it's important for me to obviously just get my training load back up again, get
09:24this tendonitis or whatever I have going on sorted so that I can be consistent with with
09:29everything that I'm doing again.
09:30Last one, Simon.
09:31Jack, how many painkillers are you going to take and also hip injuries becoming sort of
09:38very common in tennis? Are you at all worried about that kind of thing?
09:42I mean, I think, yeah, I think everyone's moving so well and everyone's hitting the
09:47ball so hard that obviously with the amount of tournaments and with the amount of tennis
09:54that we play in, we're constantly putting our body under stress and under a lot of strain
10:02when we're moving. And yeah, it's a really, really difficult one, you know, for the hips
10:09and for the body, like because you just wear and tear the whole time, especially like big
10:16guys as well. If we're good movers and stuff, we're kind of throwing our body around and
10:21putting ourselves in awkward positions. It's not easy. My hip, yeah, like maybe a little
10:27bit, but you know, that's just a sport. Everyone's got their own like areas where they struggle
10:33more than others. And that's my area that I'm going to have to look after and manage
10:37for probably the rest of my career. And yeah, that's it really. Like I'll just manage it
10:44the best I can and hopefully get on a run where, you know, I feel like I'm not playing
10:48with pain and I can be all right. And yeah, not take pain killers.
10:52How many do you take?
10:54Yeah, I mean, all the time, you know, a lot, you know. Yeah, a lot.