JACK DRAPER CROWNED BRITAIN’S NEW NO 1 AFTER REACHING STUTTGART SEMI-FINALS
Jack Draper bombed down a career-best 31 aces in Stuttgart on Friday, justifying his new status as British No1 with a hard-fought win over Frances Tiafoe.
At 22, Draper has been showing promising signs for a couple of years now, without quite achieving the trophy or celebrity scalp that might catapult him into the public eye.
But his 16th win of the season confirmed that he is very much the coming man, guaranteeing him a career-high ranking of No 33 or 34 on Monday even if he goes no further at the Stuttgart Open.
Whatever the outcome of the Tiafoe match, Draper was always guaranteed to become the 19th male British No1 of the Open era, courtesy of Cameron Norrie’s surprising loss to the inexperienced Jack Pinnington Jones in Nottingham on Thursday.
But it was still nice to see him grasp the baton in style.
Draper’s three wins in Stuttgart have now earned him a crack at Brandon Nakashima, the world No 70 from the USA, in Saturday’s semi-final.
“I think my mindset on my serve really changed,” said Draper, who reckoned 31 aces to be the highest tally of his career. “Because of my shoulder injury last year, I had to serve for a long period of time at 70 per cent to protect my shoulder. That maybe had a carry-on effect at the start of this year, where maybe I think in my mind I’m going at 100 per cent, but I’m not really letting go on the serve.
“And so when we got back [from the French Open], it was just like ‘The shoulder’s not a problem anymore, just have a relaxed arm’. My technique on my serve’s great, so loosen your wrist and just go for aces.”
At 6ft 4in tall, Draper has the same devastating lateral curl on his lefty serve as 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic. Admittedly, he does not come forward nearly as much behind that serve. But his new “supercoach” Wayne Ferreira – whose arrival was reported by Telegraph Sport in early May – has decreed a more proactive approach.
The early results were less than encouraging. When Draper scored just one victory across three clay-court events, which included a first-round loss to world No 176 Jesper de Jong at Roland Garros, it would have been easy for him to slip back into his old counterpunching style.
But then the clay-court season is the hardest part of the calendar in which to blitz people with aggressive tactics, especially when conditions are as cold and heavy as they were in Paris a fortnight ago. Grass, on the other hand, is a gambler’s surface – as Ivanisevic proved in 2001. Against Tiafoe on Friday, Draper was always the man on the attack, and it paid off in a 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 comeback-win.
‘I’m trying to be more aggressive’
“When Wayne Ferreira came in, James Trotman and I had been working together for a long time and we felt like we needed another voice,” Draper explained. “He [Trotman] was always trying to get me to be more aggressive but I don’t think I’d quite got to that point, to that realisation that I needed to change.
“After the first few events on the clay, where I had chances in all the matches I lost, I realised I was trying to make them miss and these top players don’t miss, especially in those big moments. I think we saw it with [Carlos] Alcaraz in the final of the French Open. With the way that men’s tennis is changing, you’ve got to go out there to win the match and win it on your own terms.
“I can still win lots of matches playing as that defensive player. I’ve got to 35 in the world playing that way, but if I want to be a top-10 player I’m aware that people like Alcaraz take it to another gear. I’m trying to be more aggressive, more positive, and I’m getting through the line against some of these really, really good players, so I’m happy.”
British No 1s in the open era
1973 Roger Taylor: No 11 (career-high world ranking)
1977: Mark Cox: No 12
1978: Buster Mottram: No 15
1978: John Lloyd: No 23
1983: Colin Dowdeswell: No 31
1985: Steve Shaw: No 88
1988: Andrew Castle: No 80
1989: Neil Broad: No 84
1989: Chris Bailey: No 126
1993: Chris Wilkinson: No 114
1994: Mark Petchey: No 80
1995: Jeremy Bates: No 54
1997: Greg Rusedski: No 4
2002: Tim Henman: No 4
2016: Andy Murray: No 1
2018: Kyle Edmund: No 14
2021: Dan Evans: No 22
2021: Cameron Norrie: No 8
2024: Jack Draper: No 35
2024-06-14T17:11:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd