Before Wimbledon even started on Monday, two of their top players withdrew because of injury. Emma Raducanu, the 2021 United States Open champion, is not playing because of a stress fracture in her right leg according to Jonathan Jurejko of the British Broadcasting Company. Jack Draper, the 2024 United States Open semifinalist. is not playing because of his reoccurring arm injury according to Tumaini Carayol of The Guardian.
Draper withdrew after his first round win at the 2025 United States Open because of the ailment. He then missed the rest of the 2025 tennis season, and the 2026 Australian Open. One interesting story is that Draper also missed the majority of the clay court season (except for one match at Barcelona against Tomas Martin Etcheverry) because of a knee injury. This different injury forced him to miss the French Open.
The fact that Draper is not playing at Wimbledon is actually surprising. That is because he played at Eastbourne, and reached the semifinals, before losing 7-5, 6-3 to France’s Ugo Humbert.
In the first round, Draper was to face American Taylor Fritz in one of the top first round matches. Draper will now be replaced by Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, the 153rd ranked player in the world. The lucky loser is best known for reaching the 2019 Monte Carlo Masters final before losing 6-3, 6-4 to Italy’s Fabio Fognini. On the women’s side, Raducanu was replaced by lucky loser Daria Semenistaja of Latvia. Semenistaja lost to Antonia Ruzic of Croatia in the first round on Monday, by a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
