Jack Draper has been handed an incredibly tricky route to the Wimbledon final.
The world no4 cemented himself as a top seed for this year’s Championships, with his superb run of form at the back end of 2024 and into 2025 meaning that he could avoid a meeting with world no1 Jannik Sinner and defending champion until at least the semi-finals.
The highlight of Draper’s year so far came at Indian Wells, as he lifted his third tour-level title, and his first Masters 1000 crown in the Californian desert.
Most recently, he was beaten in the semi-finals at his home tournament - Queen’s Club - by Jiri Lehecka, despite being seeded second. Had Draper got through the tricky Czech, he would have earned himself another meeting with Alcaraz, who he beat on the west London grass last year.
Now, Draper finds himself in the top half of the men’s singles draw, joined by Sinner, who is searching for a maiden Wimbledon title, while Alcaraz, the two-time winner at the All England Club, is on the opposite half.
However, the Briton will have his hands full from the very first round when he takes to the hallowed turf of south west London, looking to record a best-ever finish at the grass-court major.
Draper has not progressed past the second round in his career, with his round two defeats coming in 2022 and 2024, against Alex de Minaur and compatriot Cameron Norrie, a former semi-finalist here, respectively.
Round one: Sebastian Baez
First up, Draper has been drawn against the unseeded Argentine Baez.
The Brit is unbeaten against the world no38, beating him twice. Their first encounter came on the Monte Carlo clay in 2023, where Draper came through 6-3 7-5, and the second was at last year’s Adelaide International, with Draper victorious 6-1 6-3 on the Australian acrylic. They have never played each other on grass.
This year, Baez has reached three tour-level finals, in Rio, where he won the title against Alexandre Muller, in Chile where he lost to Laslo Djere, and in Bucharest, where he was beaten by Flavio Cobolli. He has not played a single warm-up tournament on grass ahead of Wimbledon.
Round two: Marin Cilic
Based off seeding and record, the veteran Croat Cilic could be Draper’s second-round opponent.
A former finalist at the Championships, Cilic was beaten by Roger Federer in the 2017 showpiece. He is also a two-time winner at Queen’s Club, lifting the trophy in 2012 and 2018.
Known for his huge serve and his heavy groundstrokes, the 2014 US Open champion could pose a real test to Draper as the two men face off for the first time.
Round three: Alexander Bublik
This is where Draper has a chance to exact his revenge.
Beaten by the Kazakh in the fourth round of the French Open, the Briton has unfinished business with this summer’s 28th seed.
Bublik, however, comes into the Championships as a grass-court title winner having triumphed spectacularly in Halle.
The world no30 beat Sinner, Tomas Machac, Karen Khachanov, and Daniil Medvedev en route to a second title in North Rhine-Westphalia, having won the tournament before in 2023.
Despite Bublik’s latest victory over Draper at Roland Garros, the Briton still has a winning record over him - at least on the official tour circuit.
Draper defeated Bublik at Queen’s Club in 2021 via two tiebreaks, and then in last year’s semi-final in Adelaide, coming through in straight sets.
However, Bublik has bettered the Brit on grass before, beating him in the first round of qualifying for Queen’s Club back in 2019.
Last 16: Jakub Mensik
Should Draper complete his revenge arc on Bublik, he could then face another of tennis’ bright young talents.
Mensik made his mark early this year, stunning Ben Shelton in Auckland before beating sixth seed Casper Ruud in four sets at the Australian Open.
His real rise to prominence came at the Miami Open, which he won in extraordinary fashion. He beat Draper in the first round, before knocking out seeds Tomas Machac, Arthur Fils, and Taylor Fritz to reach the final, where he bested Novak Djokovic across two tiebreaks.
Draper’s defeat to the young Czech is the only time that the pair have played on the ATP tour, but the Briton does have a victory over Mensik from the Challenger tour, beating him 6-4 6-2 on the hard courts of Mouilleron le Captif.
Quarter-finals: Novak Djokovic
Any indication that Draper was safe from the big names because of his high seeding was dashed when Djokovic’s name was drawn in the same half of the bracket.
Unfortunately for the Briton, Djokovic only has the 24 grand slam titles to his name, with seven of those coming on Centre Court.
That said, Djokovic’s form has been indifferent this year, winning just the one title in 2025.
That came on the Geneva clay ahead of the French Open, but otherwise, the 38-year-old arrives at Wimbledon with two semi-final defeats at this year’s majors, having lost to Alexander Zverev in Australia, and Sinner in Paris.
Draper and Djokovic have met once before - at Wimbledon in 2021 - with the Serb winning in four sets, 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.
Semi-finals: Jannik Sinner
Should Draper make it through to the last four, a meeting with Sinner could be his toughest test of the lot.
The world No1 is hungry for a maiden title at the Championships, and he is desperate to right his wrongs after he let a two-set lead - and championship points - slip in the French Open final against Alcaraz.
The Italian has never progressed further than the semi-finals in SW19, with his best finish coming in 2023. Last year, he was ousted in the quarter-finals by Medvedev in five sets.
Sinner’s grass-court preparation has not been the best in the lead-up to Wimbledon, however, with a shock last-16 loss to Bublik at Halle, coupled with a first-round doubles exit alongside Lorenzo Sonego.
Another crumb of comfort for Draper is that he does have a winning record over Sinner on grass, defeating him at Queen’s Club back in 2021.
Their other meeting came on that sweltering night in New York last year, where the Italian outlasted the Brit in the US Open semi-finals.
Final: Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz, as Rafael Nadal’s successor, was never meant to be good on grass, but he arrives at the All England as a two-time champion, having successfully defended his title last summer with a demolition job of Djokovic on Centre Court.
Unlike Nadal, Alcaraz doesn’t rely on heavy topspin to push his opponent further and further behind the baseline. Instead, he bullies them with raw power to add to his frightening athleticism and delicate touch.
He has proven himself to be the best all-court player across all surfaces, as his French and US Open titles demonstrate.
Similar to Sinner, Draper knows that he can beat Alcaraz on grass, having done so superbly at Queen’s in 2024, defeating the Spaniard 7-6(3) 6-3.
This year, it is 2-1 in Alcaraz’s favour, after he benefitted from a Draper retirement in the fourth round of the Australian Open, before the British no1 defeated him at Indian Wells.
Alcaraz was victorious in their most recent encounter in Rome, beating Draper 6-4 6-4 in the last eight.
