Emma Raducanu has declared Jack Draper "an integral part" of British tennis and admits not having the ATP world No. 10 at the United Cup is a loss for Great Britain.
In late October, it was announced that Great Britain would be led at the United Cup by its top-ranked male and female players.
But on December 26th, the British United Cup team suffered a major setback when Draper announced that he wasn't ready to play in Australia due to his ongoing left arm injury.
The British side has since arrived in Perth and their team consists of Raducanu, Katie Swan, Olivia Nicholls, Billy Harris and Neal Skupski. Former six-time Grand Slam semifinalist Tim Henman is the team captain.
Raducanu: It would have been great to have Draper… Hope he soon returns
“Obviously we would love to have him in the team. He’s such an integral part of British tennis and it would have been great to have him here. But we just wish him all the best and as his teammates we can just hope he gets better soon so he can join us for the future events," the 2021 US Open champion told Sky Sports.
When announcing that he would miss the first month of 2026, Draper claimed that it was his "most difficult" injury.
"I’ve obviously been through a fair amount of setbacks so far, but by far and away, this one has been the most difficult, the most challenging, and the most complex one that I’ve had," the three-time ATP champion said.
Raducanu and Draper were expected to play singles for Great Britain at the United Cup. But since the 10th-ranked ATP player pulled out of the mixed team event, world No. 128 Harris is expected to get the nod for singles action.
Great Britain will kick off their United Cup campaign on January 4th.
Raducanu plays against Naomi Osaka, while Harris should take on Shintaro Mochizuki.
