Jack Draper is eager to compete with top players like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as he prepares for his first major summer tournament at Wimbledon.
This season, Draper has been one of the standout players as he won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells. With this, he moved to the top four of the ATP rankings. Furthermore, he is the focus of British tennis as he is the hope of his home country to bring home the 2025 Wimbledon title.
In recent years, World No. 1 Sinner and defending champion Alcaraz are the crowd favourites at Wimbledon, but Draper truly believes that he is ready to compete with them. He admitted that he watched the athlete’s intense match at the French Open.
“I watched it in my flat… I watched the last three sets there. Unbelievable tennis. I think it inspired all the players. I think it captured the attention of all the spectators and all people around the world, and even people who aren’t into tennis as well.
It was one of those sporting moments where I think everyone was embraced by it. So I think Jannik and Carlos did an unbelievable show there. A shame someone had to lose. But that’s the nature of sport. I think tennis won for sure,” the athlete shared.
Draper: “Can I get to that level? Yeah I think so…”
With this, Draper remarked that he can also be on that level of tennis as Alcaraz and Sinner, expressing, “My friend said to me when we were watching them play, ‘How are they playing this way after five hours or something like that?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think they are thinking about anything. I think they are just thinking about playing.’ I don’t know what I’m capable of yet, but I aspire to be at that level. What those guys are doing is setting the way and changing the game. Players like [me] are going to be working very hard to get to that point. That’s 100 per cent for sure.”
“It helps players like [me], helps the game in general, to keep on moving in the right direction and keep developing. Because obviously, the spectators were brilliant. The players could feel it as well. When you haven’t got, say, Rafa, Roger, Novak or Andy in the changing rooms… I know it’s a bit different, but having players who are asserting themselves in that room, I think that’s amazing for tennis.
Hopefully, there are more of those. Because they’re going to keep on improving and make us better. They’re going to hopefully keep producing more and more great players and great levels,” he further stated.
The 2025 Wimbledon is set to happen from June 30 to July 13. Determined as he can be, Draper declared: “Those two guys [Alcaraz and Sinner] are really setting the way and I’m looking forward to chasing them down.”