Jonathan Jurejko, BBC Sport senior tennis reporter in New York
It had been difficult to assess how serious Draper’s arm injury was during his time in New York.
Initially he was upbeat about his recovery, insisting he was ready to go and would not be holding back in his first-round match.
But there have been clues that it was more of a problem than he had been letting on.
Draper did not go full throttle with his serve during the match against Gomez, relying on precision and patience instead of power.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Draper – who has a reputation as an open and honest talker – spoke more about the setbacks he had encountered in his recovery, but said he was confident of doing no more damage here.
So what has changed over the past 24 hours? We know he practised at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday afternoon after his opening win – seemingly testing out his playing arm by leathering some forehands – and also hit on Wednesday morning.
This tough decision will have ramifications for his ranking. He is likely to drop out of the top 10 when his points from last year’s run to the semi-finals fall away.
It will also hamper his chances of playing at the season-ending ATP Finals, especially if he has to take another extended break to solve the issue.
