MELBOURNE — Jack Draper is not shy about saying it: he wants to be world No 1.
A year ago, such a statement would have seemed absurd. Draper started 2022 ranked just outside the top 250 in the world and was just making his first steps on the second-tier Challenger Tour. But a year of crushing victories has sent him rocketing up the rankings and now, on the eve of 2023’s first grand slam, he is world No 40.
“I think there’s no denying I know that I can be a very good player,” Draper tells i ahead of the Australian Open.
“I know I can achieve great things but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll do that.
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“There’s always going to be a lot of noise. It’s important just to keep your head down, and just get on with the job because you’re more likely to do it that way.”
Draper is well prepared for what fame and fortune have in store for him. He gets his tennis talent from his mother Nicky, a former junior national champion and fine county player, but his acumen for navigating the sport’s choppy waters from his father, Roger, a former chief executive of the LTA.
He has good professional advice too, part of the same IMG stable as Emma Raducanu, with whom he shared an agent until last summer.
But the list of those around Draper does not run to the hundreds. There are no hangers-on or extended entourages, and he does not want his ongoing success to change that either.
“I’ve always had the same people around me, I’ve got a pretty small circle,” Draper says.
“I just get on with what I need to do to be better and maybe one day when I have a huge result then my life will really change.
“But at the moment the only thing that has changed is that my ranking has changed. I’m maybe playing a bit better tennis, maybe a little bit more money in my pocket but I’ve always played because I love the sport.”
That love was stifled repeatedly by a series of injuries that set him back at key moments. Even in 2022, when his luck appeared to have changed, the 21-year-old was hit with problems. At the US Open, he had to retire from his third-round clash with Karen Khachanov due to injury. A few weeks later, he flew to Sofia and planned to move on to Kazakhstan afterwards, but was forced to return home without playing a match due to a serious throat infection.
The injury curse even extended to his team, with James Trotman – aka Trots – ruled out of Draper’s return to the tour late last year with a back problem, meaning Emma Raducanu’s former coach Matt James had to deputise.
Draper wasn’t thrown off course though and even at 21 thinks he already has the tools to keep his game ticking over – although he won’t be abandoning his coach any time soon.
“I’ve had three main coaches over the years, Justin Sherring, Ryan [Jones] and Trots, and to be honest, at the stage I’m at now, with my tennis, everything’s going to keep on improving: my fitness, mentality, my consistency, the more I play at this level,” he says.
“I pretty much know everything I need to do to play well. I’ve been playing for so many years now that I can adjust what I’m doing. But it’s good to have someone with you who is keeping an eye on these things.”
Draper’s wisdom is derived from having to be patient at a young age, despite having all the skills necessary to compete at the highest level. As a teenager in the pandemic, he regularly hit with the likes of Andy Murray and Cam Norrie, giving him the confidence if any were needed that he could challenge the elites of the game.
“I see really young guys around the National Tennis Centre and they’re on that same journey that I was on when they’re 13, 14, 15, 16 and I’ve realised that everyone’s in such a rush to be getting results straight away,” Draper says.
“It just doesn’t happen like that. You’re gonna have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, you know, and one bad week or whatever isn’t going to change where you’re at in six weeks to six months time. Your life can completely change.
“So I think [my advice] is don’t get too high and don’t get too low. I feel like all the things I’ve gone through in the last four years have made me strong and have got me to this point, both on a mental level, and on a physical level and just overall tennis-wise.
“If I’d got there really, really young, I don’t think I’d have been able to mentally deal with it. I think a lot of the experiences I’ve had have made me into who I am. I’d say that’s the thing. It’s just trying to learn as much as possible and not be in a rush to be good straight away.”
