Jack Draper says getting to know Andy Murray has given him ‘a lot of lessons’ as the British player seeks to rise further up the world rankings.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed a strong first half of 2022 which has seen him claim a quartet of titles on the lower-level Challenger Tour. Since January he has climbed more than 150 places in standings to break into the world’s top 100 for the first time at the age of 20. This week at Queen’s he scored another milestone by stunning world No.14 Taylor Fritz in the first round. Making it his biggest win on the Tour to date.
However, Draper’s run at The Queen’s Club ended on Wednesday when he lost in straight sets to Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori who he admits ‘outplayed’ him. It was only the fifth time in his career he has played in the main draw of an ATP Tour event.
Eager to improve further, Draper says his time spent with three-time Grand Slam champion Murray has given him some vital insight into what needs to be done.
“I was able to watch him a lot at an early age. I think he was in his prime when I was eight to 14,” The I quoted Draper as saying at Queen’s.
“Watching him and being able to see the lessons just from his game without knowing him was great.
“And then obviously I’ve had the chance to hit with him and get to know him during the latter part of his career.
“I think for a young player like myself, having that sort of influence and being able to be around that on a daily basis – because Andy is a champion – and to understand his habits and the way he lives his life in order to be a top tennis player definitely gives me a lot of lessons and a lot of confidence that I can hopefully go down the same path.”
Draper, who is the son of former LTA chief executive Roger Draper, first emerged as a promising player on the junior Tour. In 2018 he reached the final of the Wimbledon Boy’s tournament before losing to Tseng Chun-hsin. As a professional, he has scored wins over Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik, as well as taking a set off Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last year. More recently, he also took a set off Andrey Rublev before losing in three at the Madrid Open.
“I feel like I’m always pretty hard on myself, but I feel like other players maybe keep it in their head for a few days. I’ll definitely get over it quite quickly,” he said of his latest loss to Ruusuvuori.
“I’ll play Eastbourne next week, obviously Wimbledon is around the corner. I can take some positives from this week of course, beating a top player in Taylor but I can also take some lessons from today which is going to help me moving forward.”
As of this week Draper is the fourth-highest ranked British player on the ATP Tour and the youngest in the world’s top 300.
