By Draper needs to go from promising talent to the real deal
There is so much to like about Jack Draper. A howitzer of a left-handed serve, a bloody-minded competitive streak and an engaging personality make him a potential star of the future.
And yet, there is no one single “Aha!” moment that you can point to in Draper’s career. He has reached two ATP finals but lost them both on a deciding set. He has beaten two top-10 players, both in August 2022, but generally come up short against the best.
Draper’s biggest problem has been his physicality. After a series of injuries in 2022, he hired Dejan Vojnovic – a former Olympic sprinter from Serbia – as his fitness trainer, but then suffered a stomach tear in Indian Wells and a torn shoulder tendon in the build-up to the French Open.
Missing the whole of last summer’s grass-court season was a heavy blow, and may have robbed him of that breakthrough moment we just mentioned. In the offseason, he switched to a different trainer – Steve “Speedo” Kotze – who has a deeper background in tennis and has helped him manage the first four months of 2024 without injury.
“Maybe in years past I was a bit softer,” Draper said in January. “And I didn’t want to fully do the work. Whereas I’ve had enough experiences where there’s no hiding from it and I’ve really embraced what I’m trying to do. That kind of determination and real effort is going a long way for me right now.”
