After a win on Davis Cup duty for Great Britain in Norway in early February – in what was his first match since August – Draper was advised not to play in Rotterdam the following week.
But when he did return to the tour in Dubai, wearing a black compression sleeve on his arm, he beat Quentin Halys before falling in three sets to Arthur Rinderknech.
“I was very happy with the week in Dubai,” Draper told BBC Sport.
“It wasn’t so much about my level, it was how I was going to respond to the matches, to the practice. That was kind of the final hurdle, really.
“I was proud of just getting out there and competing hard and doing what I love once again.
“Potentially it was probably a good thing that I wasn’t playing match after match after match.”
Draper beat back-to-back top-five players in Taylor Fritz and Alcaraz on his way to last year’s Indian Wells final, before overcoming Holger Rune to lift a first Masters 1000 trophy.
One of the perks of winning at Indian Wells is that you get to select the menu for the following year’s Champions Lunch.
Draper chose steak and chips, which appeared on the menu as grass fed filet mignon with parmigiano truffle fries and a green peppercorn sauce.
The women’s champion Mirra Andreeva opted for cheese pancakes with vanilla-honey mascarpone for dessert – and she wasn’t the one having regrets.
“I’m not feeling too great about that choice now,” Draper said before the food was served.
“I’ve got to practise in about an hour. When I said that I was probably very deep in a training block, and having a very strict diet.”
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