Jack Draper came into Wimbledon hoping to follow in Andy Murray’s footsteps as a home champion but departs the All England Club with a lengthy to-do list.
The assumption is that British players have an advantage on grass but for Draper it is the opposite, with the 23-year-old admitting he has not yet worked out how to maximise his abilities on the surface.
Although he won his first ATP Tour title on grass in Stuttgart last summer, his defeat by Marin Cilic on Thursday meant he has still not been beyond the second round at Wimbledon, making it comfortably his worst grand slam.
Upset alert 🚨
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 3, 2025
Croatia's Marin Cilic stuns Jack Draper 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to knock the No.4 seed out of The Championships 2025 😮#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/rZP6NQjWRy
“I think there’s a bit of a misconception, just because I’m a 6ft 4in lefty, I must be incredible on grass,” said Draper. “I obviously won Stuttgart, but I haven’t had loads of experience on it.
“I don’t think I played incredibly well on it before. Obviously I’ve never gone past the second round here. Some players find it harder than others. I’m obviously very determined to change that and make it a surface that is going to be great for me.
“I feel like that’s the way with every surface. When you have the mindset of, even though I don’t feel comfortable, I’m going to make it happen, I’m going to make it better for me, it usually works. That’s what I did on the clay this year.
“It’s just hard to find that time because we don’t have a lot of time to play on grass throughout the year.”
It was very evident that Cilic, a former finalist at the All England Club, was much more at home on the surface than Draper, who looked rushed and was left scrambling around behind the baseline while his opponent dictated most of the baseline points.
“I think the hole in my forehand showed up, for sure,” said Draper. “I wasn’t able to deal with his pace of ball into my forehand. I was over-spinning a lot.
“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.
“Obviously movement could have been better. There’s many areas of my game which I still really, 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, top guys. They’re so consistent all the time because there’s no holes in their game.”
Draper’s improvements this season, which have carried him to a first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells and a top-four ranking, have been credited partly to him finding a balance to his game.
But, speaking on the BBC, John McEnroe urged Draper to stand further up the court, saying: “He’s done great, he’s got to four in the world. If I was looking from a distance at Jack, I was like, ‘Why’s he standing so far back all the time?’
“Especially on hard courts, even clay. Is he quick enough to cover, is he fit enough do that consistently? Is that what he wants to do, to wear people down that way?
“The forehand’s gotten way bigger. To me, at Wimbledon, you’ve got to cut off some of these angles, because it’s tougher to make those quick first steps.”
Jack Draper speaks about the "misconception" around him 🗣#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/TpSewoR8W6
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 3, 2025
Draper will now turn his attention to the North American hard court season, where his big breakthrough came with a run to the US Open semi-finals last year.
In New York, the Londoner was the outsider, whereas now he is the big name to be shot at, and both Cilic and Alexander Bublik at the French Open produced inspired performances to upset him.
“I’ve got to expect that now,” he said. “Obviously I’ve got a bit of a target on my back with my ranking.
“Are they playing that well because I’m dropping the ball short, I’m not doing enough with the ball? That’s what good players do, they punish you.”
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