- Jack Draper is the great British hope in the men’s singles at Wimbledon this year
- He was promising youngster before dropping off but then found his way again
- Draper admitted his body used to break down easily but is now in top shape
Jack Draper is Britain’s great hope in the men’s singles at Wimbledon and has undergone a huge physical transformation to become one of the world’s best tennis players.
The 23-year-old stands at a towering 6ft 4in thanks to a growth spurt in his late teens and he’s now one of the most imposing players on court.
Draper has admitted that earlier in his career he ‘looked like a Ferrari but felt like a Toyota that was breaking down easily’.
He’s now built up a resilience and the man former British No 1 Laura Robson describes as a ‘complete tennis keeno’, swatted aside his first-round opponent at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
He’s a real contender to go deep in the tournament but it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
‘I was very different then (at the start of his career), Draper told the Guardian. ‘A bit of a maniac, to be honest.’
‘I have felt better and better every Grand Slam I have played,’ he added to the BBC.
‘Before I felt like my energy wasn’t that strong, and I felt like I looked like a bit of a Ferrari but I was a bit of a Toyota, like broke down quite easily.
‘Now I’m starting to feel generally stronger and confident in myself. I have always worked really hard off the court. I think it’s helped me play more consistently on the tour.’
One major change the beefed-up Draper has made compared to his early career is cutting out caffeine.
‘I used to take a lot of caffeine before I played, because I felt maybe sometimes with my emotions, I would feel tired before I played’, Draper said after reaching the US Open semi-finals last year having beaten Alex de Minaur.
‘The anxiety would shut me down, so my way of dealing with it was taking on a hell of a lot of caffeine.
‘But I learnt that probably wasn’t the best situation because I ended up becoming very wired and very agitated, and I wasn’t able to be present and focus on what’s important.
‘I think it was probably best that I cut it out of my life.’
Tennis history is littered with prodigies who burst onto the scene in their teens and early twenties before fading away.
Draper is the opposite and believes he’s still a couple of years away from being in his prime.
‘I was a really late developer,’ he says. ‘There are players who have developed really early, and they’re ready to do it when they are 22 or 21. But I think I’ll be at my peak when I’m 25.’
His physical transformation has also helped his game become more well-rounded.
As a skinny teen, Draper had to play more defensively and built up those skills before adding to his arsenal with more firepower the older and stronger he became.
The data website ‘Viz’ uses metrics from every shot on tour to build a rating out of 10.
Draper is the only player outside of world No 1 Yannick Sinner to be rated more than eight on serve, return, forehand and backhand.
He manages to put 3,158 revolutions per minute (rpm) on the ball on his forehand, which is far greater than the tour average of 2,844rpm.
While his backhand used to be the major weapon and foundation of his game, Draper’s forehand is now ranked 15th on tour, up 10 places from last year.
In what is rapidly becoming the Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz era, Draper is aiming to throw his hat in the ring and take his next developmental leap.
It will be fascinating to see how far he can go over the next fortnight with home support behind him and next up he plays veteran Marin Cilic on Thursday.
