{"id":2153,"date":"2026-05-10T14:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:50:23","slug":"juan-martin-del-potro-and-gabriela-sabatini-gives-their-verdict-on-jack-drapers-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2153","title":{"rendered":"Juan Martin del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini gives their verdict on Jack Draper\u2019s potential"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Argentine tennis icons Juan Martin del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini have spoken to Tennis365 about Jack Draper\u2019s potential after the British star\u2019s latest injury setback.<\/p>\n<p>Draper has not played since he was forced to retire in his match against Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the opening round at the Barcelona Open last month.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old revealed afterwards that he had suffered an aggravated tendon in his right knee and pulled out of the Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome. He has since withdrawn from the French Open, where he had been hoping to compete.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/jack-draper\">Draper<\/a>\u2018s knee issue occurred just two months after he returned to the ATP Tour following almost six months on the sidelines due to a bone stress injury in his left arm.<\/p>\n<p>While Draper has battled a host of other problems with his body in his short career to date, he remains one of the most exciting talents in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>The Brit reached a career-high ranking of world No 4 in June 2025 after a stellar first half of the season that included him winning the Indian Wells Masters.<\/p>\n<h2>More Tennis News<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/juan-martin-del-potro-interview-carlos-alcaraz-jannik-sinner-djokovic-nadal-federer-comparison\"><strong>Why Alcaraz &amp; Sinner have \u2018big opportunity to get closer to Djokovic, Nadal, Federer\u2019 \u2013 Juan Martin Del Potro<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/italian-open-2026-withdrawals-retirements-22-players-out-arthur-fils\"><strong>Italian Open withdrawals and retirements: 22 stars out as Arthur Fils joins list<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Want more from Tennis365? Add us as<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What did Del Potro and Sabatini say about Draper?<\/h2>\n<p>In an exclusive joint-interview, Tennis365 asked del Potro and Sabatini \u2014 who are ambassadors for the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rolandgarros.com\/en-us\/article\/roland-garros-junior-series-by-renault-fifth-edition-sao-paulo-april-2026\" target=\"_blank\">Roland Garros Junior Series by Renault<\/a> \u2014 if Draper can compete with Sinner and Alcaraz, providing he overcomes his injury struggles.<\/p>\n<p>Del Potro, who dealt with serious wrist and knee injuries during his own glittering career, was positive about Draper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, why not? I know how difficult it is to deal with injuries,\u201d said del Potro, who defeated Roger Federer in the 2009 US Open final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut he has the game. He did it (challenge Alcaraz and Sinner) already.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, if his body allows him to play without pain and he starts to get confidence again in his body, I think he can be one of these guys who you have to take care of in the draw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sabatini, who beat Steffi Graf to win the US Open in 1990, then shared her thoughts on Draper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, he has some great potential,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s already a great player. We have seen that at the US Open [in 2024, when Draper reached the semi-finals].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe can do a lot of damage with his game, so hopefully he will be okay with his injuries. And I\u2019m sure he\u2019s another player who will be there at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/jack-draper-warning-leading-injury-expert-del-potro-comparison\">Why Jack Draper \u2018needs to change something\u2019 as injury expert issues Juan Martin del Potro warning<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/jack-draper-jannik-sinner-carlos-alcaraz-juan-martin-del-potro-gabriela-sabatini-interview\">Juan Martin del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini gives their verdict on Jack Draper\u2019s potential<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/\">Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentine tennis icons Juan Martin del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini have spoken to Tennis365 about Jack Draper\u2019s potential after the British star\u2019s latest injury setback. Draper has not played since he was forced to retire in his match against Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the opening round at the Barcelona Open last month. The 24-year-old revealed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}