New York, Sep 15 (IANS) As he recovers from a long-term arm injury, Jack Draper has decided to call time on the 2026 season and is targeting a return to the ATP Tour at the start of 2027.

The 24-year-old Briton has endured a difficult and disrupted season, featuring in just eight tour-level events and missing all four Grand Slam tournaments. Draper announced on social media on Tuesday that he will use the remainder of 2026 to recover fully before setting his sights on a return to competition next year.

“Don’t usually love lots of words on here but I wanted to update you that I am aiming to return to the tour at the start of 2027,” Draper wrote in an Instagram post. “Last summer all the dedication and work I had put into this sport was coming together. It was all going my way, and the path seemed so clear.

“However, a complicated injury made things incredibly challenging, and since that moment I’ve been desperately trying to get back and feel as I once did on the court. Managing so much change, adversity, and pain has helped me to grow massively in many areas of my life but has also made me feel a level of fatigue that made it difficult to keep going.”

Draper enjoyed a breakthrough 2025 campaign, winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells and climbing to a career-high No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, said a report on the ATP Tour website. However, his season was ultimately cut short at the US Open, where a long-term arm injury brought his year to an early conclusion.

The Briton returned to competition in February but has found consistency difficult to establish as he has continued to manage the injury. He reached the quarter-finals in Indian Wells and advanced to the semi-finals in Eastbourne, but with consecutive defeats in Montreal and Cincinnati, he has slipped to No. 155 in the ATP Rankings.

Draper will now take the remainder of the 2026 season away from competition as he continues his recovery, with his focus firmly on returning to full fitness in the new year.

“I am taking this time to reset and heal so when I return I am 100% ready to go,” Draper wrote. “Tennis is my purpose and passion, and so when I step back on court I want to make sure that nothing is holding me back from where I want to go and achieve the things I know I’m capable of," he wrote in his post.

--IANS

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