Jack Draper will return to the ATP Tour in Washington next week, but his buildup to the US Open has shifted in a way few would have predicted.

The 24-year-old has managed only 13 matches this season, with arm and knee problems repeatedly forcing him away from competition for long stretches. His year had seemed to be turning when he reached the last four at Eastbourne, only for the arm issue to return and stop him in his tracks before Wimbledon.

After withdrawing from the grass court major, the former world No 4 said, “I’m devastated to share that I have had to withdraw from my first round match due to a recurrence of my arm injury.

“There have been a lot of painful moments in the last 12 months, but this one is definitely the absolute worst.”

Eastbourne was meant to be his comeback event, yet it came after a knee injury suffered in mid-April at the Barcelona Open. That setback caused him to miss the French Open.

Following his Wimbledon withdrawal, Draper received a wildcard into the Washington 500 tournament. Former champion Kei Nishikori and recently crowned Gstaad champion Stefanos Tsitsipas were also handed spots in the draw.

His injuries have sent him down to 147th in the world, and there is no certainty that he will return to the level he once reached. Draper has already missed all three majors this year because of injury.

After Washington, the North American hard court swing continues through Montreal, Cincinnati and Winston-Salem in August before the US Open.

While many would expect him to enter one or more of those events, the current plan points in another direction. Draper is on the entry list for the Brownsburg ATP 75 Challenger, which begins on 10 August.

He is scheduled to join former top 20 player Cristian Garin and American youngster Nishesh Basavareddy in the 32-man field. The event offers $107,000 in prize money, underlining how important match play is for Draper as he works back toward full fitness. The remaining question is whether his body can now hold up.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ split from his father and long-time coach Apostolos has been cast in a new light after his title run in Gstaad, with Rennae Stubbs suggesting the move had become overdue.

The four-time women’s doubles major champion said the Greek’s recent revival supports the decision to end a difficult partnership that had stretched across a testing spell on the ATP Tour. Tsitsipas briefly worked with former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic last year, but that arrangement lasted only two months before he returned to his father.

Three weeks after ending that latest partnership with Apostolos, the 27-year-old ended a 16-month wait for a title by winning the ATP 250 event on Sunday. He beat Raphael Collignon in three sets to lift the trophy.

After the final, Tsitsipas said, “It’s a crazy feeling right now. I survived a marathon and it was a long week. I played some crazy matches in the past couple of days. Every single match felt like it was never finished, and somehow I managed to convert every single time and get the victory.

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“Today I couldn’t be more blessed, couldn’t be more happy. It’s been an incredible effort from my side to go out there and do that over and over again. I’ve dealt with some pain in the past couple of days. So I’ve had to withstand a lot of different things. The result was obviously the best thing I would have imagined at the beginning of the week.”

Tsitsipas, who dropped to 87th in the world after Wimbledon, now has Thomas Perrin in his team. Perrin has spent many years coaching at Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy.

Stubbs, whose own coach Serena Williams won in Switzerland, moved back to 49th in the rankings after his victory. She called it the right choice to “finally flick his dad as his coach”, then offered her view of what matches looked like from the players’ box.

On the latest episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she said, “Some would say his dad’s gotten him here and there, and I am like, but the problem is Stef loses his s*** on the court and half the time it’s not even at his tennis, it’s at his dad, and his dad is yelping at him from the sideline… that is so negative. I know because I was told what he was saying at times by somebody who speaks Greek.

“So maybe you need someone out there who is making you feel good, and half the time, that’s what coaches do. There are certain things you have to tell your player, whether it be Xs and Os and what we’re going to work on and what we’re gonna get better at.

“But in the end you have to have someone supportive of you, who really believes in you when you get into the trenches and when you get down those five match points in the second round, and you look up, and Sven Groeneveld (Karolina Muchova’s coach) is pounding his chest and saying ‘Keep fighting’.

“You need to look up and see a coach who believes in you, who thinks that you can still win, and not someone who is going to yelp negative s*** at you that makes you feel terrible on the court. Clearly that is finally working for Stef, and it’s nice to see him back.”

Tsitsipas’ previous title came at the Dubai Open in March 2025.

Concerns are building around Holger Rune’s comeback as he prepares to return from injury with a new racket and a reshaped outlook on the timing of his best level.

The 23-year-old has been absent from the ATP Tour since he tore his Achilles tendon at the 2025 Stockholm Open last October. His repeated delays in returning have been reflected in the rankings, where the former world No. 4 has fallen to 81st, his lowest position since early 2022.

Rune is listed for the Cincinnati Masters in mid-August, but expectations for an immediate surge have been checked by commentator Gill Gross. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Gross suggested Rune may need a lengthy adjustment period before he can perform at his peak again, and pointed to Alexander Zverev’s recovery from the ankle injury he suffered at the 2022 French Open as a useful comparison.

Gross said on his YouTube channel, “I think the expectation should be really low. If you’ve seen how arduous this recovery process has been, this is a real break where you’re going to have some serious rust: mentally, technically, physically.

“This will probably be a pretty slow build for Holger. [Rafael] Nadal and [Jack] Draper are examples of players who tend to come back, and it doesn’t take them very long to get going, but Zverev did take a while to come back from his ankle injury at Roland Garros.

“When he came back, he was okay for about six months but he didn’t move like he usually moves and his confidence was pretty low overall on big points. There were a lot of issues when Zverev came back, and that lasted about six to eight months, and I would expect a similar timeline with Holger.”

Alongside the injury layoff, Rune has also changed equipment, moving from the Babolat Pure Aero 98 to the Wilson Defyer racket. In early July, he said, “I was instantly drawn to this racket when I first started playtesting with Wilson. They have been supportive of my recovery, and I can’t wait to compete with Defyer when I hit the court.”

Gross also reacted to reports that the change may have been made for “business reasons”, calling that a “dangerous” path and noting Andre Agassi as a famous example of a player whose racket situation later shifted with greater success elsewhere.

There is also the wider context of Rune’s rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, who is likewise sidelined. The pair have met for over a decade and are tied 2-2 in their head to head. Rune won their most recent clash, beating Alcaraz in straight sets in the final of the 2025 Barcelona Open.