Britain's rising star Jack Draper: 'I'm happy with top 1,000 but I have got to push on and be hungry for more'
When Jack Draper lost the Wimbledon boys’ final in July, there was a feeling among tennis insiders that the defeat might have been a blessing in disguise.
Becoming a British Wimbledon champion - at any level - brings with it suffocating pressure. Just ask the last home junior winner Laura Robson.
We’ll never know how the 16-year-old Draper would have coped, but the last couple of months suggest narrowly missing out did him no harm at all.
Starting with a third-tier Futures event in Belgium, three weeks after the final, Draper picked up his first professional ranking point. He then reached the semi-finals in Slovakia, before storming to the title in Nottingham the week before last. In so doing Draper became the youngest British Futures winner since Andy Murray 15 years ago, and to show the win was no fluke, he picked up his second Futures title at Roehampton this weekend.
These first footprints on the tennis landscape were all achieved with the same aggressive, fearless tactics that thrilled those who saw him at Wimbledon - not least during an epic four-and-a-half hour semi-final. A 6ft 2in leftie with a lethal serve that has been clocked at 126 mph, Draper has a big game and an exuberant personality on court.
The Nottingham victory means that as of Monday's rankings, Draper will be up to around No. 780 and is the only 16 year old in the world’s top 1,000. He will likely move even higher once the points from Roehampton are added to his tally.
Draper's decision to stop playing junior events after Wimbledon already looks like a sound one. Speaking at the National Tennis Centre after beating the No. 1 seed Baptiste Crepatte in Roehampton on Wednesday, he told a small group of reporters: “It was good to finish juniors on a high, but I think now I've proved that I can play at a high level at the pro circuit events. I moved on and it was definitely the right decision.”
On cracking the world's top 1,000, he added: "I'm happy but at the same time once you achieve that you have got to try and push on and be hungry for more because I want to be more than that."
Unfailingly polite, Draper also apologised for his match against Crepatte taking so long.
Draper’s tennis education began as a three year old growing up in Surrey. The son of former Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) chief executive Roger Draper, Jack is blessed with a rich pedigree, but it was actually through his mum Nicky that he was introduced to the sport.
Once a British junior champion herself, Nicky was coaching at a local club in Sutton and brought Jack along. “I would go and hit on the practice court where she could see me when she was coaching,” Draper explains. “That's how I started.”
He attributes much of his development since to learning from his 19-year-old brother Ben, who reached the junior Wimbledon second round in 2016 and now plays at the University of California, Berkeley. Continuing the family theme, the brothers' uncle Jon Entract was also a promising junior.
Draper’s prodigious talent stood out early, and just a year after sitting on Centre Court at Murray's first Wimbledon triumph, he was selected, aged 12, to play doubles with Murray and Tim Henman. The match was hosted at Reed's School in Cobham, Surrey, which Draper and Henman both attended. “I remember because I was about 5ft 5in and they were all towering over me," he says.
“It was a great experience. Actually Andy hooked me - I hit an ace down the T and he called it wide but it was in.”
In a sign of how far Draper has come since, he received a message of congratulations from Murray in July after reaching the junior Wimbledon final: “He just said ‘keep up the great work’ which was amazing.”
Soon after Wimbledon, Draper left education. He achieved encouraging GCSE grades of one C, two Bs, and two As, but is relieved to now have more time for tennis and “normal” things like seeing friends and watching Manchester United.
“It’s about trying to find a balance between being ‘normal’ and a tennis player because if you don’t do it, it’s not good mentally,” he says.
“But I want to be a tennis player so I’m going to try and go all in.”
To help him achieve that goal, Draper receives LTA funding and is guided by an elite support team. His main coach is British No. 1 Kyle Edmund’s former mentor Ryan Jones, while Steve Kotze, who previously worked with Murray and Eugenie Bouchard, looks after his strength and conditioning.
As with Murray, Kotze has rich foundations to build on - Draper already stands at 6ft 2in, and estimates he’ll grow another inch. He also anticipates adding substantial bulk to his upper body.
In the immediate term, Draper is acclimatising to the switch from the glamour of Wimbledon to the “no air-con, 40-degree heat” rough and tumble of the Futures circuit.
After a week off, he will play back-to-back events in Nigeria. Looking further ahead, Draper says: “I just want to try and get my ranking up and see where I am. Six months ago would I have said I’d be in this position? No way.”
