LONDON (AP) — This Wimbledon couldn’t have started much worse for the home team.
After Emma Raducanu withdrew on the eve of the Grand Slam tournament with a stress fracture, Jack Draper followed suit on Monday by pulling out because of long-term arm injury.
That leaves the grass-court tournament without the two biggest names in British tennis.
To add to the pain for the locals, the first six British players to take the court all lost in the first round on Monday.
None of those players were tipped to make a deep run, though, unlike Raducanu and Draper.
Raducanu won the 2021 U.S. Open while Draper was seeded No. 4 at Wimbledon last year and reached the U.S. Open semifinals in 2024.
“There have been a lot of painful moments in the last 12 months, but this one is definitely the absolute worst,” Draper, who had been set to play Taylor Fritz on Centre Court in the first round on Tuesday, said in a statement.
Draper’s withdrawal also scuppers a return to Wimbledon for two-time champion Andy Murray, who ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s champion when he won the tournament in 2013. Murray was set to be in Draper’s box during matches this fortnight after agreeing to coach him through the grass-court season.
But Raducanu’s withdrawal was perhaps the biggest blow to organizers, especially as she had played some of her best tennis since that U.S. Open triumph in reaching the final at the Queen’s Club grass-court tournament this month.
“It’s so devastating for a player to have to withdraw the night before a Grand Slam and particularly for your home Grand Slam,” said Sally Bolton, the All England Club chief executive. “I’m terribly sorry for Emma. … It is devastating. For us, I suppose the good thing to look forward to is we’ve got lots of Brits competing.”
Those comments were made before the early mass exodus of home talent, with Harriet Dart, Felix Gill, Mika Stojsavljevic, Max Basing, Alicia Dudeney and 26th-seeded Cam Norrie all going out in quick succession.
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