Jack Draper attributed his bouts of vomiting during his US Open semi-final loss to a combination of humidity, the physical intensity of the competition and his anxiety during the biggest match of his life.
“It was very humid today,” Draper said after his 7-5, 7-6, 6-2 loss to Italian Jannik Sinner.
‘It was a very physical match, Jannik is the number one player in the world; when you play against the best players, the intensity is different, it’s a step forward.
‘It’s a big occasion for me. Although I generally feel pretty relaxed, today I definitely felt more excited, a little bit more nervous. I’m quite an anxious human being. I think when you add all that up, I sometimes feel a little bit nauseous on court and I feel a little bit bad when things get tough.
“I didn’t have any problems before the game, but obviously it was building up.”
Jack Draper attributed his vomiting attacks to humidity, physical exertion and his anxiety.
Draper vomited three times during the match and was also sweating profusely, but she competed well and will come away with many positives from her first Grand Slam semi-final appearance.
“You feel worse and worse because you can’t take anything in,” the 22-year-old said. “When you play long matches, you need to drink and eat things to give your body the supplies it needs to keep going.
“But obviously when you’re feeling bad and stuff like that, you can’t put anything inside your body, because it just comes right out and it’s the worst feeling ever. You can’t move around the court when that happens.
“It’s a horrible feeling, and you feel more dizzy and sicker.”
Draper said she never considered retiring from the match. ‘No, no, no, I’m not going to retire in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. I know the last set wasn’t a great spectacle, but at the end of the day, I always try to give my best.
Draper vomited three times during the game and was also sweating profusely in New York.
“In the second set I wasn’t feeling very well and I still took it to the tiebreak. I fought a lot. I’m proud of myself. I tried to fight as hard as I could. But I won’t be able to do it against someone like that.”
On her anxiety and how she deals with it, Draper said: “Tennis is a mental and physical thing. I try to do my best all the time to keep evolving, to keep learning, and it’s definitely something I’ve had to work on my whole life.
‘I have a pretty strong mindset and I spend a lot of mental energy most of the time because I want it so badly.
“That doesn’t help a lot a lot of times, especially in these best-of-five-set matches, that kind of anxiety and those feelings can build up. So it’s definitely something that’s a real strength of mine, but also a weakness, and I just have to keep working on it.”