LONDON: Jack Draper says his shock exit from Wimbledon has exposed holes in his game that he needs to work on for the future.
The world No.4 crashed out of the tournament in four sets to 2017 finalist Marin Cilic, who is playing at SW19 for the first time in four years after being hampered by injury issues. Draper had no answers against the Croat who started aggressively and dictated proceedings early on. The 23-year-old is yet to win back-to-back matches at his home Grand Slam.
Frustrated by his defeat, Draper admitted for the first time that he had not been entirely happy with his game on the grass this season and implied his recent run to the semi-finals at the HSBC Championships (Queen’s) was a shock for him. He played at the tournament whilst having tonsillitis and won three matches before losing to Jiri Lehecka.
“I’ve been really disappointed with the way my game’s been on the grass this year, in all honesty,” Draper said during his press conference.
“I wasn’t feeling too great at Queen’s. I don’t know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final.
“This has highlighted to me this year that I struggled on the grass. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay.
“I felt like there wasn’t many holes in my game, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference.”
As for what specific areas of his game Draper would like to improve, the forehand comes to his mind. According to his match stats, he produced 20 forced errors and nine unforced errors from his forehand against Cilic. In comparison, his backhand errors were 13 and 18.
“The hole in my forehand showed up, for sure. I wasn’t able to deal with his pace of ball into my forehand. I was over-spinning a lot,” Draper analysed.
“I think a lot of my success this year with my forehand, when I have more time, it’s a lot easier for me because I can create the speed and the spin that I want, and the effectiveness of that.
“My movement could have been better. There are many areas of my game which I still really need to work on to be the player I want to be. I want to feel like everything in my game is secure. I think that’s what you see with the top guys. They’re so consistent all the time because there are no holes in their game.
“I think the last couple of weeks have been good for me to see that, even though I’ve had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I’ve still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game.
“In some ways, that’s exciting, and in some ways, that’s hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.”
Draper was the highest-ranked British man at Wimbledon since two-time champion Andy Murray eight years ago. He had made significant progress in recent months by winning the Indian Wells Masters in March and reaching the final of the Madrid Masters. He was also runner-up at an ATP 500 event in Doha, Qatar.
When asked if he struggled with the pressure from the media, Draper was reluctant to form a link. Although the experience has given him even more admiration for Murray, who was in a similar situation many times during his career.
“It makes me think that Andy’s achievement of what he did winning here twice, just unbelievable,” he said.
“It’s not the pressure, it’s not the whatever. I just didn’t play good enough. I lost to a better player. I wasn’t going out there thinking I was under so much pressure.”
There are still three British players left in the draw this year. Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartel are still in the women’s tournament. Meanwhile, Cameron Norrie is still playing in the men’s.
