Is Draper The Next Del Potro? | Mailbag

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**Gill Gross** (0:20)
So, same time next week?

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**Gill Gross** (0:31)
Hey, everyone. Gill Gross here. And it is time for another Mailbag, where I answer your questions, hot takes, observations. Ultimately, your comments about tennis or anything else, you left them underneath my YouTube post in the post section on the homepage of my channel. And we're into the triple digits on comments this week. So thank you, everybody. Awesome stuff. It's been a great week of tennis. Some nice 500s with good fields. Stuttgart, Barcelona, Munich, I've been waking up early to commentate much of the action on Tennis Channel. So I'm a little bit gassed right now. But I am running on my Evans Brothers Coffee, official coffee of Monday Match Analysis. It's been a long time since I've given them a shout out. They're fans of the show. They make great coffee. And there's a discount code in the description if you want to try Evans Brothers Coffee. Very, very good stuff.
Let's get into it. Let's just jump right in, shall we?
First one is from TNS Guy. What's your level of concern on Draper? He tried coming back this week in Barcelona, but had to retire. Last year, I thought he might have had the best chance of joining Alcaraz and Sinner at the top if he stayed healthy, but he might become another Delpo, a player with immense talent who may put together an occasional few months of top-level tennis and may even go on a two-week hot streak to win a major, but ultimately might have a lot of what if. What if he only stayed healthy questions about his career?
I think this was the top-liked comment, 48 likes. I agree with your premise. This time last year, he was clearly the closest in level to Alcaraz and Sinner, particularly after he made the Dredd final, which was a continuation of great results in the first half of 2025, and also was a great run of health for him. It wasn't that he was just healthy in the first half of last year. He was also healthy throughout the entirety of 2024 And I had really thought that he had gotten over the physical hump that plagued him when he was coming up as a teenager and even a little bit in his early 20s. You know, I guess prior to 2024, he had never really played a full season. And it had been a major factor in his development. I thought he got over it, which is why the last seven or eight months have been a demoralizing kind of turn of events, especially because this arm injury has been unimaginably difficult. This bone bruise in his arm has been unimaginably difficult. He certainly didn't imagine that it would be this difficult. And I know that for a fact, because Jack tried to come back at the US Open and he was playing through Wimbledon before he sort of stopped and looked to recover from this bone bruise. And he had a scan the summer of last year that showed it was all good. He came back, played the one match in New York, and then kind of felt it again and withdrew out of his second round. Then he got another scan that revealed that there was still some damage, shut it down for the rest of 2025, went on the tennis podcast towards the end of the year, and revealed his plans to play some exhibitions in December and then to play the play in Australia. Well, he didn't play those exhibitions in December and then he didn't play in Australia. And then he showed up at the start of February, came back in Dubai, pulled out of Rotterdam as a precaution, did play Indian Wells in Miami, and then pulled out of Monte Carlo as a precaution. And as far as I know, all indications are that it was once again just to protect that arm. What I can say about the Barcelona retirement is it was his knee against Tomas Martin Echeverri in that first round match. So that's actually great news.
And in isolation, there's nothing to be worried about when it comes to the Barcelona retirement. I'm much more worried about actually, and I know this might sound crazy, I'm much more worried about the fact that he felt the need to pull out of Monte Carlo.