MASON, Ohio — Jack Draper’s comeback to the ATP Tour continued Thursday. But his path back to playing regularly appeared to take a dark downturn. The former world No. 4 said he is facing overwhelming doubts about the task that lies in front of him to overcome a chronic injury in his playing arm and climb back up the tennis mountain.A downcast Draper, now the world No. 143, appeared distraught after Martin Landaluce of Spain beat him 6-3, 7-5 in the opening match of the Cincinnati Open, the last big tournament ahead of the U.S. Open.Last week, Draper was in tears during his opening-round loss at the Canadian Open to Térence Atmane of France. After the loss to Landaluce, Draper, who had been up 5-2 in the second set and had six set points, said that his physical issues were starting to sap his mental reserves on the match court.“I’m usually able to fight for every ball and conduct myself,” Draper said during a joint interview Thursday afternoon.“It’s just missing. After last week, I put in a lot of hard work to play a bit better this week. But obviously the conditions, and all the things that I’m changing, it’s very hard to manage.‘I think from an internal point of view, it’s a difficult place to be right now.”Why do tennis players change their rackets so often?Tifo SportsDraper said he does not expect to receive a singles wild-card entry into the U.S. Open. It’s unclear where and when he might play next. He has signed up to play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open with Jessica Pegula, and the duo made the semifinals last year, but they would probably need a wild card to gain entry this year.Draper withdrew from the second round of last year’s U.S. Open singles event because of bone bruising in his left arm, and he has barely played since. Earlier in his career, he missed nearly a full season with injuries to his hip, shoulder and abdominal muscles; when he initially returned from the bone bruising at this year’s Barcelona Open, he suffered a flare-up of tendinitis in his right knee.To compensate for the left arm injury, he said, he has had to change his style of play, tinker with his strokes, and change the setup of his racket. Draper has returned to a pinpoint serve stance and has added natural gut to his stringing setup, in a bid to lessen the load on his legs and arm. But while his injuries are persistent, he said he was more concerned about his mentality on the court, which, he said, feels beyond his control.“It’s more the emotional level that I’m able to bring isn’t high,” Draper said.On Thursday, Landaluce broke Draper’s serve in the first game and cruised to the first set. Draper then rebounded and surged to a 5-2 lead in the second set but could not finish Landaluce off. He relinquished chances with double faults and regulation misses, giving Landaluce, who was on a poor run of results himself, chances to claw back the deficit. On match point, he sent a backhand long.The rising Spaniard won five consecutive games as Draper couldn’t find the power to attack. His forehand seemed to grow weaker with each game.“From the start of the match, you’re battling it a lot and you’re trying to keep going with it and moving forward throughout the match and trying to pump yourself up and give yourself energy, but it just suppresses you down,” he said of the doubts about his future.“It’s the fatigue in my mind and my body from a long period of setbacks and struggle and isolation and just trying to get back all the time.“The level of my fall almost from where I was last year and the amount of things that I’m having to change in my tennis. … The mountain seems very, very big.”Draper peaked in the spring of 2025, winning at Indian Wells and then making the finals of the Madrid Open. He has largely struggled since then, which has been the major theme of his professional career — a surge and then a lengthy setback.“It’s the kind of over and over again for me, which has been the difficult part,” he said. “I know that some great champions have come back from big adversity. I’m not sure if theirs was, you know, on their playing arm.”As he spoke of the chronic discomfort he feels, the gears of his brain seemed to spiral with the downstream effects that pain was having on the rest of his body. The original pain might dissipate, but he spoke of the elbow’s connection to the rest of his arm, to bicep tendonitis and nerve damage.“When you have an injury to that area, the whole arm is kind of lit up,” he said, comparing it to the feeling of wearing a blood pressure cuff.“This is my life. This is my career,” he said, adding that he has been working with a psychologist and leaning on his friends and family to carry him through from one day to the next.He’s not sure where it will end.“Everyone’s been incredibly supportive of me,” he said. “We’re going to see what happens, that’s for sure.”