Jack Draper loses 6-3, 7-5 to Martín Landaluce in first round at Cincinnati Open
Jack Draper lost 6-3, 7-5 to Martín Landaluce in the first round of the Cincinnati Open on 13 August 2026. The former world No 4 continues to contend with a long-term arm injury and a decline in form.
Draper began his match by shanking a forehand into the back fence and following it with two double faults, immediately falling a break and never recovering. There were a few fleeting positive moments, but a poor first set set the tone and he later squandered six set points in the second set after leading with a double break at 5-2.
“It’s the same as last week, the way I’m usually able to fight for every ball and conduct myself, it’s just missing,” Draper said. “After last week, I put in a lot of hard work to play a bit better this week. Obviously, the conditions and all the things that I’m changing is very hard to manage, but I think from just an internal point of view, it’s a difficult place to be right now.”
Draper, 24, spent the final stretch of his first-round loss at the Canadian Open last week in tears; on Wednesday he attempted to remain positive while describing his emotions as a reaction to the mental toll of both his injury — bone bruising in his left arm — and the disruptive changes he has made to lessen the strain. He said: “From the start of the match, you’re battling it a lot and you’re trying to keep going with it and moving forwards throughout the match and trying to … pump stuff up and give you energy, but it just suppresses you down. It’s got to a point with me where it’s taken probably one of my biggest qualities, my fighting spirit.”
Since Wimbledon, Draper has changed his strings, his racket and he continues to adjust to his service motion in an effort to reduce strain on his arm, alterations he acknowledged come at the expense of optimising performance. Although he said the injury did not directly contribute to the defeat, Draper emphasised the uncertainty surrounding the condition of his arm. He said: “I think that’s the toughest part. It’s like there are no right answers. You have to figure it out. A lot of it’s probably, I found out in the end, biomechanics and changing rackets. It’s a tough injury because you have to start again with what you do. “There’s a level of chronic pain that’s always with you. That starts to go away, but obviously the arm is linked to the elbow. It’s linked to bicep tendinitis, it’s linked to so many nerves around that area. So when you have an injury to that area, the whole arm is kind of lit up. It’s like someone taking blood pressure. And your arm’s just [struggling]. “When you’ve got that on your playing arm. This is my life, this is my career, you know? It’s tough enough as it is to play such an intense sport and the amount we have to give to it. And when you’ve got an injury that is tough to come past and tough to understand, there’s many challenges, there’s many obstacles. For a normal person, they’d go and probably have six months off and it might recover and heal. Truth is I’m playing tennis and so it’s not as simple as taking time off and it’s going to go because it doesn’t [work]. I’ve tried it.”
Ranked No 143 and without a protected ranking, Draper has been relying on wildcards to enter ATP events but does not expect to receive one for the US Open, meaning he will have to play in the qualifying draw to compete in New York. He said: “I think it’s the fatigue in my mind and my body from a long period of setback and struggle and isolation and just trying to get back all the time. The level of my fall almost from where I was last year and the amount of things that I’m having to change in my tennis. Yeah, the mountain seems very, very big.”