Jack Draper is in a reflective mood, as he continues to work his way back from the long-term arm injury that has kept him out of competitive tennis.

It’s been a strange period for the 24-year-old. After breaking into the world’s top 100 in 2022, he climbed to around No.40 the following year before making another significant jump through 2024 and into 2025. The hard work was starting to pay off. Then, just as his career appeared to be gathering real momentum, his body forced him to stop.

What started as pins and needles in his arm became increasingly painful before scans revealed serious bone stress. The recovery has been complicated, not least because a tennis player can’t simply stop using the arm that’s causing the problem.

But sitting down with him, it becomes clear the injury has changed more than his physical preparation.

Draper has spent most of his life being a tennis player. Now, for the first time, he’s had to work out who he is when he isn’t playing.

That’s meant taking recovery more seriously, adapting his training and finding time for things he’d largely neglected – friends, family, holidays, even gardening. He’s also developed a different perspective on what success actually means.

Draper recently announced a long-term partnership with Scandinavian recovery technology brand Flowlife, which he had already been using during his rehabilitation. Recovery has become a much bigger part of his routine, alongside strength and conditioning, nutrition and sleep.

Here, Draper talks openly about the physical and mental demands of elite tennis – and what he’s learnt while being forced to step away from it.

Men’s Health: You’ve had to step away from competing just as your hard work was really starting to pay off. How do you keep that sense of progress going when you’re not able to compete?

Jack Draper: It was difficult to deal with. In 2022, when I first came onto tour, I broke the top 100, which is every tennis player’s dream. In 2023, I was injured a fair bit but finished the year around 40 in the world.

Then in 2024 and halfway through 2025, I was really climbing the rankings and feeling unbelievable in myself and my body. All my hard work and sacrifices were paying off. And all of a sudden I got hit with a really difficult, complicated injury.

I really tried for a long, long time to work for it and keep going. I’d worked so hard to get to where I was, so I was desperate. Especially in tennis, you’re kind of watching yourself falling every week, trying to not let the boat sink.

I think it’s been more about taking myself away from the game a little bit to get my energy back.

I started playing and working when I was about 16, so all I’ve ever known is my tennis. I’ve probably neglected a lot of other areas of my life, like going on holiday or meeting friends and just doing normal things.

So I suppose it’s helped me realise that success isn’t just tennis. Success can be feeling good in yourself. Success can be having great relationships with the people that you love around you and taking time for that as well.

MH: How did the injury actually start?

JD: It was a weird one. I was in Madrid last year, I made the final there, and during that week I practised a couple of times and felt like I had pins and needles in my arm. Those pins and needles became more frequent when I was playing and practising.

Then it got to the point where the French Open and Queen’s started getting quite a sharp pain in my bicep.

As a tennis player, you’re constantly using your body. You might be dealing with two, three, four different niggles at the same time, so you kind of just play through it.

When I got it scanned after Wimbledon, they said I’d had quite serious bone stress in my arm. I didn’t know what that meant at all. I was thinking, ‘Oh, it’s just going to be six weeks, that’ll be good.’

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that with a bone, especially because they don’t heal easily. I have to use my arm all the time when I’m hitting the ball.

And there’s a lot of complexity because there are different areas around that arm. It’s not just the bone. The bone causes inflammation, which then maybe causes bicep tendinitis, maybe causes elbow problems, maybe causes a nerve problem.

So it’s hard to know what pain’s what.

It was my first experience of chronic pain and it’s difficult because you start not thinking of yourself as an athlete. You start thinking of yourself just as a normal person. You start wanting to feel OK in yourself again.

MH: Talk us through the recovery process.

JD: There’s lots of peaks and troughs. The first six to eight months, I was in pain all the time, more so when I was playing.

The difficult thing with bones is people will say, ‘I’m going to take a break, just stop playing.’ It doesn’t work like that. I think it’s because the bone needs to keep getting turned over to adapt, especially to the sport I play.

The injury improves itself when you change your biomechanics, when you change the way your body’s working to be more efficient, instead of just taking a break.

So as I was getting better, especially this year, it was about changing my biomechanics, changing potentially the stiffness of my racket and my strings and all those sorts of things.

MH: Has the injury changed your mindset?

JD: I think I was at that level of just fighting for it for so long that I almost needed a bit of a break from it all.

I’ve never really taken a break before, and that’s been pretty special for me – to look around and think, ‘OK, I’m not just a tennis player.’

I think we athletes can get so used to living a certain way and being all in that we forget there’s more to life than just winning, losing, suffering, pain, adversity and ups and downs. It sends you on that roller coaster and you stay on it and never come off.

When I take a step back, I’m like, ‘Fuck, I’m proud of what I’ve done,’ but I also realised that I needed a bit of a break to have the energy to approach this next part in a really transformative and good way.

MH: Do you think it’ll help you enjoy being back on court more?

JD: Absolutely. The injury I’ve had definitely makes you contemplate stopping, what life is like without tennis, and getting to that level of letting go and acceptance of, ‘I may never play to a really high level again.’

‘Is this ever going to go away?’ All those sorts of thoughts are scary at first, but once you realise there’s more to life, that gives you a sense of freedom within yourself.

I’ve been keeping ticking over, hitting, and I’ve started to really enjoy the exercise of it. I enjoy the fact that I can play this incredible sport very, very well and use my body in ways that not many people can.

It’s given me an appreciation for how well I can play.

MH: How has your approach to strength and conditioning evolved?

JD: When I was a bit younger, I had a growth spurt and my tennis was way above my physicality. The level I was playing at was physically more than I could cope with.

Then I worked incredibly hard for a couple of years and really felt like I was on the same level. There’s obviously still much improvement to come.

But as your career evolves, your body changes and you need to adjust to new types of training to keep managing your body properly.

Especially with the way tennis is going, with matches week in, week out at the highest level, guys are moving better, the courts are slower, balls are fluffy as hell, you can’t hit winners.

It almost doesn’t make sense to bash your body in and around training all the time as well as being on court.

So it’s definitely made me focus more on just looking after my body and not always smashing it.

MH: What does your strength training look like during a normal training week?

JD: When I’m competing, you don’t do loads. It’s more management work around your injuries and strength prevention.

But when I’m doing a normal training week, I’d probably be doing strength training two or three times a week, endurance two or three times a week, maybe a form of Pilates or yoga, and a lot of rehab stuff.

The strength work is really based around helping me to function better on court.

I don’t really lift for body stuff because if I see a weight, I put weight on.

Everyone’s got a different body. It makes me laugh when I see Ben Shelton – he’s like a tank – or people saying I’m really strong and big and should be more like Djokovic or Sinner.

We can’t functionally do that unless we don’t eat for six months, and that’s not going to help either.

Everyone’s got different bodies and different ways they’re built, so you have to work around that as best as possible.

MH: Are there any exercises that have made the biggest difference away from the court?

JD: In terms of conditioning, I think the bike – using a Wattbike or a VersaClimber – just anything to stay off your tendons or your joints.

It makes me laugh when people go, ‘I might start exercising. I’ll do a five-mile run on the concrete.’

I’ve run on concrete a few times. My knees are absolutely fucked. I feel awful.

So I try and stay off my joints and tendons as much as possible when I don’t need to.

MH: What does a typical Wattbike session look like?

JD: It depends. An easier session would probably be a steady-state 30 minutes, keeping around 80 RPMs.

An interval session could be harder. It could be five 1Ks, timing however fast you do the 1K, having a little break and then doing it again.

That’s brutal. You’re chucking up after that.

It could also be on the bike, three minutes on, one minute off. Obviously you can’t go full out for three minutes, but you’re going pretty hard.

The only way I believe you get fitter from an endurance perspective is by suffering and getting used to the suffering. The more you adapt to dealing with lactate and all those sorts of things, the easier it will ultimately feel.

MH: How do you approach nutrition during a tournament?

JD: I try to avoid anything too heavy. I like eating things that are quite light and try to get the most amount I can in without force-feeding myself and overfilling myself too soon.

Eating regularly rather than just in one sitting is a bit better for me.

MH: What’s your go-to pre-match meal?

JD: Usually rice with a bit of olive oil, a bit of salt and then a little bit of fish if I can, because fish is lighter than chicken or beef.

That’s what I usually go for.

MH: How has your recovery routine changed?

JD: Before it’d probably be trying to get decent sleep, not thinking about it too much, trying to eat properly.

I’d try and get in an ice bath here and there, or get in the sauna if it was convenient. Obviously, stretch, massage, use a lot of things we’re doing anyway to help our recovery.

But with the injury I had, that’s completely changed.

Before I was very much like, it doesn’t matter how much sleep I get, doesn’t matter how tired I am, I crack on, I keep going. I show up every day and do good quality, doesn’t matter how I’m feeling.

That’s still true now, but I definitely focus more on getting more sleep.

MH: How did Flowlife become part of that?

JD: About five months ago, a friend sent me a link for Flowlife. I’d just moved house and I was thinking one of the things I really want to invest in, and invest in my career, is having a recovery room that I can come back to and do all my stuff in.

I didn’t know what that looked like or how I was going to get good equipment. It was going to cost a lot of money and it wasn’t going to be practical because you can’t have all the things in one space.

So when he sent me the link, I tapped on it and it was literally like a candy shop for an athlete.

They had TENS machines, red light in all different sizes, face masks, hyperbaric chamber, sauna, ice bath. It all looked great quality and it was easy to use.

I’d really love to work with these guys because I think what they’re creating is pretty special, not only for myself as a professional athlete, but for anyone who wants to look after themselves.

I’ve got this room now and I’ve got a small sauna downstairs where I am and obviously an ice plunge, so it’s all in one space.

That’s the thing – just for anyone, not just an athlete, people would do it if it was more convenient, if it was easy to use and if it’s something you can use to look after yourself without having to drive somewhere or go somewhere.

MH: Is there a Flowlife product you use most often?

JD: Probably red light because it’s just easier.

I just take 10 minutes, 30 minutes depending on how long I’ve got, and put my body or my face in front of it and just zone out for that time.

Take a quiet moment for yourself. You can’t be on your phone, you can’t be doing any of that because it just doesn’t make sense to.

The red light face mask is really practical and amazing. My mum actually stole mine.

And that’s the thing about most of the stuff: you just put it in the plug and you’re good.

MH: Have you found anything useful for managing nerves or pressure before a big match?

JD: For me, the more I learnt with my tennis as I was getting better was that you always get nerves, you always get those butterflies.

But if your preparation is great, it eliminates all nerves. Because you get to the point where you know you can’t play badly.

If they’re going to beat me, they’re going to have to play an unbelievable match. I’m not going down easily because I’m going to serve well, I’m going to play very well.

I don’t believe confidence always comes from winning. It can obviously help, but confidence doesn’t come from winning.

It comes from having the discipline every day, doing great things day in and day out, working hard towards something with a passion and a purpose, ultimately just having fun and getting better.

And I think that’s how you build that inner confidence.

MH: What have you enjoyed having more time for while you’ve been away from the tour?

JD: Loads of things.

At the start, I was like, I need a bit of a break, just because of the mental toll the injury had on me and all the years of the journey so far.

So the first part was reflection, and then really strange stuff I’ve never even thought about before, like gardening.

I’ve played a little bit of golf, not my thing to be honest. I’ve been away a couple of times – I went to the Peak District with a couple of mates from school who I hadn’t gone away with for ever.

Spending more time around family, just learning new things and seeing there’s more to life and there’s actual enjoyment I can get out of other things other than winning tennis matches.

That’s been the main thing: finding joy in things that I didn’t know about.

The better you get at something, you think it’s going to get easier. It doesn’t, it gets harder. I realised that with my tennis. I was thinking all the time that I want to be at the top.

When you get there, the pressure only gets more. More demand from people, more media, travel, you’re just getting pulled in a lot of different directions.

And if you don’t have the tools outside of your tennis – finding enjoyment in other things, your friends, your place where you’re from – then it’s going to be hard to sustain that.

So that’s been one of my biggest reflections. I’m really looking forward to climbing my tennis journey again, but from the same outlook, obviously one with a bit more depth and perspective.

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