PUTNEY, LONDON—As much as his breakthrough year has been about changes to his game and mentality, Jack Draper points to something else underpinning his growth on and off the court.
“I feel I’ve got a goal and a purpose bigger than myself,” he told reporters in a west London pub earlier this month, ahead of a memory walk to raise money for the charity Alzheimer’s Society.
Draper has seen the impact of dementia up close, with his maternal grandmother Brenda Entract battling Alzheimer’s for a decade and his grandfather Chris Entract doing his best to support her in that time. Draper calls Chris a “hero” for his support of Brenda, a former tennis coach who taught Jack the basics of sport as a youngster and was a huge influence on him growing up.
Draper’s dad was the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and his mother is a coach and former top British junior player, but it was his grandparents who would often take him to tournaments — and he says that Brenda’s love for the sport passed down to him.
“They were a huge part of my development,” he says of his nana and pa.
Draper has become a lot better known to the tennis world this year. His breakthrough season took in a first Grand Slam semifinal at the U.S. Open; a first (and second) ATP Tour title in Stuttgart, Germany and Vienna, Austria; and a first win against one of the very best players: a straight-sets success over Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s Club, which is close to the start of the memory walk. In 12 months, Draper has hoisted his world ranking from No. 61 to No. 15.
But to understand what motivates this thoughtful and sensitive soul, who turned 23 on Sunday December 22 but speaks with the wisdom of a veteran, it all comes back to his grandparents. The desire to honour them is partly why he wants “to be busy the whole time. I want to be progressing — I understand a lot about myself in the last year and a half.
“My mindset really shifted. I know that I’m always someone who wants to achieve, who wants to keep on moving forward, to keep on improving.”
Draper therefore finds it tough to stand still, as he is having to do at the moment. A minor hip injury put paid to his planned trip to Spain to practise with Alcaraz and he confirmed Thursday, December 19 that he will miss the United Cup, which begins December 27 in Perth, in order to get fit for the Australian Open which begins January 12 in Melbourne. His caution is informed by a history of fitness issues; staying largely injury-free was a key driver for his success in 2024.
The first Grand Slam of the year offers Draper the chance to start building on a hugely promising and sometimes tumultuous year. In the face of heavy criticism after a controversial match point against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Cincinnati Open in August, when Draper appeared to hit an illegal shot to win the contest, he told U.S. Open reporters that he had thought about the incident for “four days non-stop”. Draper acknowledged that Auger-Aliassime should have won the point in question, but maintained that he genuinely wasn’t sure in the moment.
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The last year has also been a period in which the idea that he has the chance to do something more than “hitting a decent tennis ball” has crystalized in his mind. His work for Alzheimer’s Society and his growing awareness of other causes — he’s been inspired by seeing blind tennis at the National Tennis Centre in London — “gives me purpose to feel like I’m not just that tennis player. I have other things that I’m trying to support.”
He adds: “In an individual sport, we’re always focused on ourselves. It’s important for me, especially as my career hopefully progresses and moves on that I have more of a purpose outside of my tennis as well.
“I don’t find who I am or what I do very impressive. I know that sounds whatever because I’m No. 15 in the world, but if I go out or if I meet other people, I’m never talking about my tennis. I don’t think of what I do as exceptional because I’m around it the whole time.
“I’m not a show-off. I still drive a second-hand Polo,” he says.
Draper speaks movingly about struggling to comprehend his grandmother’s Alzheimer’s when he was only 13. “You watch that person you love or you watch that person who’s always been such a significant figure then not know who you are and what’s going on,” he says. After the two-mile walk from Hammersmith to Putney, Draper’s pa was at the pub where everyone congregated, and the bond between the two was obvious. Draper always feels “a bit guilty” about being away because of the risk of something happening while he’s abroad, but as a result maximises the time he has with his grandparents when he is at home in London.
He wants to maximize his time on the court too, and has added the British former world No. 242 Alex Ward to his coaching team. Ward will work alongside James Trotman, Draper’s main coach. The former world No. 6 Wayne Ferreira joined in April but left four months later, after a difference of opinion on how to best harness Draper’s booming leftie serve and forehand. Ferreira wanted Draper to put more emphasis on power in his game; he sees his athleticism and shotmaking as too important to let go, despite agreeing on the need to add aggression to his play in order to compete with Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the very top of the sport.
Draper lost to his friend, Sinner, in the U.S. Open semifinal three months ago, when he vomited multiple times on court and looked at times to be wilting in the oppressive New York humidity. Draper spoke about feeling anxious after the match, as he had done when he was sick on court following his win over Marcos Giron at the Australian Open eight months earlier. But after experiencing nausea during a Davis Cup tie in Manchester shortly after losing to Sinner, he now thinks the U.S. Open ordeal was triggered by his taking ibuprofen for a sore ankle and the medicine “ruining” his stomach a little bit.
“I didn’t feel particularly anxious (against Sinner), I didn’t feel particularly nervous,” Draper says.
“Of course there’s a lot of tension, but I think the throwing-up thing, especially when I look back across the years that I’ve been playing, some things you’re just not aware of until it kind of clocks in your mind that it could be something different to that.”
Among his achievements in 2024, what pleased Draper most was the way he was able to rebound from a miserable French Open (where he lost to Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong in a tetchy five-setter) while working his way through an identity crisis with his game. He feels more comfortable in his own skin now, playing with more variety and embracing his technical quirks rather than trying to erase them. “You look on the TV and you’ve got players like (Daniil) Medvedev and myself on my forehand and you’ve got all these funky techniques,” he says.
“That’s their style. That’s what makes them great.”
He also insists he’s not bothered by being the British No. 1 and flagbearer now that his one-time mentor and idol Andy Murray has retired. He’s as intrigued as the rest of us about Murray’s coaching tie-up with the 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.
“I think he’ll be an amazing coach, his tennis brain is huge,” Draper says. “And tactically, I think he’ll find it incredibly fun. I can understand that he probably wants that buzz again — he wants to to feel like he’s part of something big. He wants to be around top tennis.”
Most British tennis fans would love to see Murray coaching Draper one day. That’s not a concern for Draper, however, who has a new season to prepare for and a purpose bigger than himself.
(Top photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)
