There may have been some indifferent football from England and Scotland in the Euros, and Andy Murray may be straining to be fit enough for one last Wimbledon, but there is at least good news for British sports fans in the emergence of Jack Draper.
Last week at Queen’s the British No 1 beat Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, in the second round. It was a breakthrough win for the 22-year-old left-hander, whose thunderous serve put Alcaraz – who won the French Open just under three weeks ago – always on the back foot. Like Alcaraz, whose forehand often draws gasps from the crowd due to its power, Draper had fans oohing and aahing as he sent down 135mph bullets.
Draper hasn’t come out of nowhere. He took the first set off Novak Djokovic in the first round at Wimbledon in 2021 and broke into the top 100 the following year. Injuries rocked his progress in 2023 and caused him to miss Wimbledon, but he bounced back to reach the fourth round at the US Open later in the year. Having worked hard on his physicality, he’s been able to play a fuller schedule in 2024, and the week before Queen’s he won his first career ATP Tour title in Stuttgart, beating the former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini in the final.
Like Murray, Draper has recently been working hard to stay positive in matches and to be more aggressive on the court, against his more defensive nature. “It’s been tough because the way I have won matches historically is by out-grinding players and by being tough to beat,” he said.
“That’s got me to 40 in the world. But [against] these really top players, whether it’s Alcaraz, [Hubert] Hurkacz, [Taylor] Fritz, I have lost a lot of tough matches, and it’s all because they have beat me in the end and I have been too defensive, I haven’t taken it to them. Ultimately, I want to play the tennis where I’m able to beat these players by being aggressive and being the one to dominate them.”
For the first time at a grand slam, Draper will be seeded at Wimbledon, at 28th. He begins against Elias Ymer of Sweden, ranked 206 in the world, and could play Britain’s Cam Norrie in round two. While Katie Boulter, also seeded, Emma Raducanu and Billy Harris offer hopes of a big run, Draper has the big game and now the big-match mind. As Alcaraz said after their Queen’s battle, “his mentality is a bit better, he’s always in a positive way. I think it’s a pretty good thing for him. I think that changed a little bit.”
Murray will play the world No 38 Czech Tomas Machac if he can prove his fitness in time. Murray’s game is scheduled for Tuesday rather than Monday, giving him an extra day to try to recover from back surgery on a spinal cyst. “The rate that I’m improving just now, if that was to continue, then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference,” Murray said on Thursday.
England could be out of the Euros by the time Wimbledon starts, with their round of 16 knockout match against Slovakia kicking off at 5pm on Sunday. Either way, Draper has the power to put a smile on the fans’ faces.
