LONDON — Jack Draper, who has played just one tennis match since Wimbledon because of injury, will not be fit for next month’s Australian Open.
The 10th-ranked Draper’s 2025 season was prematurely curtailed by bone bruising in his left arm.
“Unfortunately, me and my team have decided not to head out to Australia this year,” the 24-year-old British player said in a video on X on Friday. “It’s a really, really tough decision. Obviously Australia being a Grand Slam, it’s one of the biggest tournaments in our sport.
“However, I’ve had this injury for a long time. I’m at the very, very end stages of the process and to step back on court into best-of-five-set tennis so soon just doesn’t seem like a smart decision right now.”
Draper withdrew from his second-round match at the US Open in August before calling time on his season soon after. He was beaten by Marin Cilic in the second round of Wimbledon in July.
The Australian Open in Melbourne starts on January 18.
Meanwhile, Chinese tennis player Pang Renlong has been banned for 12 years and fined $110,000 for a match-fixing spree involving 22 matches in a five-month period.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency said that the 25-year-old Pang admitted to fixing five of his own matches in lower-level events and making “corrupt approaches” to players in 11 more matches, six of which were also fixed.
The match-fixing happened from May through September 2024, the ITIA said. During that period, Pang played in various ITF tournaments in Turkey, Hong Kong and mainland China and lost in qualifying for one ATP Challenger event, the Jinan Open in China.
The ITIA didn’t list the fixed matches linked to Pang, whose career-high ranking was 1,316th last year. His suspension is due to run through 2036, including time already spent under a provisional suspension. Of his $110,000 fine, $70,000 was suspended.
He is banned from playing in, coaching at or attending any event organized by major tennis bodies or national federations.