Andy Murray Gives Insightful Take on the Career-Threatening Injuries of Carlos Alcaraz and Jack Draper

Andy Murray was denied the chance of making his first coaching debut at Wimbledon after Jack Draper decided to pull out of the event just hours ahead of his opening match at the All England Club. The British star’s withdrawal comes months after Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of five tournaments. Murray shares his extraordinary insight into both players’ injuries.

Draper had competed at the Eastbourne International ahead of Wimbledon. The competitive event in England was his first after over two months. The former World No.4 has been dealing with arm and shoulder problems for almost a year now. It began at Wimbledon last year after being diagnosed with bone bruising, and it has not gotten better.

He has played in just five tournaments this season and finds himself languishing outside the Top 100. He hired Murray to help solve his injury crisis and get the best out of him on the court, but that is yet to be achieved. Alcaraz suffered the same kind of injury that Draper has been dealing with.

The Spaniard suffered a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open in April after twisting his arm during an opening match against Otto Virtanen. That forced him to withdraw from the Madrid Open, the Italian Open, the French Open, the Queen’s Club Championships, and Wimbledon. Last year, he won three of those tournaments and reached four of the five finals.

With both players going through rough injury spells, there’s no return date for them, especially Alcaraz, who has been out of tour-level competition for nearly three months. Speaking to Tennis365, Murray revealed that players are beginning to use lighter rackets on the court due to the pace of the match, but it does have an effect on their arms:

Players have gone to much lighter rackets than they used to use before. And with quite, like, stiff strings in the racket, so a lot of force is going through the arm. Whereas before, players use much more forgiving strings and heavier rapids, and that meant more of the force went through the racket than the arm. I feel like that’s something that maybe some of the players should look. Because the game has got quicker and faster, players feel like they need a lighter racket.

Several top players, including Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, have, on occasion, opened up about the high intensity and pace of current tennis. It has become a major problem for some players as they now have to find a way to get used to the new system and, in some ways, have caused harm to their bodies.

Andy Murray says injuries in recent months on tour are more compared to ten years ago

Jack Draper and Carlos Alcaraz aren’t the only players who have dealt with injuries in the past few months. Emma Raducanu and Holger Rune have also sustained injuries. Raducanu suffered a bone bruise, similar to the one Draper sustained at the Wimbledon Championships last year. Rune fractured his Achilles tendon last October in Stockholm.

On Monday (June 29), Novak Djokovic took the time to criticize the lack of empathy from tennis governing bodies in addressing the recent rise in injuries on tour. During the aforementioned interview, Andy Murray confirmed that there has been a significant rise in injuries, more so this period than ten years ago:

This is an interesting one because I don’t think the data suggests we are getting any more injuries now compared to ten years ago. There does seem to be more upper limb injuries than there were, and in my opinion, that is due to the change in racket technology and the strings that players are using.

Alcaraz and several other players have called on the WTA and ATP chiefs to find a way to reduce the number of tournaments they feature in a calendar. The players have complained that the number of events is too much and some are so hectic that they have no time to rest before another tournament.

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