There is an odd paradox at play when it comes to sport at elite level. Aspiring professionals spend most of their youth dreaming of making it, only to get there and then wonder if they truly belong. Even Roger Federer doubted himself for many years.
It has taken Jack Draper a long time to truly believe he deserves to be considered as one of the world’s best players. Tipped from a young age as a future star, he had obvious talent as a junior but, as with Andy Murray, his body has taken a while to catch up, with a number of injuries interrupting his momentum.
But as the clay-court season begins this week in the iconic surroundings of the Monte-Carlo Country Club, Draper stands as the world No 7, having cracked the top 10 on the back of his first Masters 1000 triumph in Indian Wells last month. The 23-year-old is also No 3 in the current-year rankings and with very few ranking points to defend up to and including Wimbledon, the left-hander has a golden chance to rise further.
His confidence has never been higher but he is always asking more of himself, never convinced that he has done enough. “Obviously, I have confidence in my tennis and confidence in myself,” Draper says, relaxing with the Mediterranean sea rippling in the background. “Especially when I go out and compete, I feel like I have a sort of personality on the match court, where I just compete for every ball, and I feel amazing, especially in that scenario. But it’s one of those things, when I first came on to the Tour – I was speaking to Jacob [Fearnley, his fellow British player] – about it last week, it’s kind of like you have that impostor syndrome, you know? You’re in the changing rooms with all these amazing players who play great tennis, and you’re thinking: ‘Do I belong here? Do I belong at this sort of venue?’
“Even in the position I am in now, and I think for the rest of my career, especially in tennis where you can win a tournament and then go and lose first round [in the next one], I always feel like I need to prove something. Always feel like I need to show that I belong at the highest level, not only to everyone else, but myself as well. So some of that never will go away.”
There is nothing like winning to dampen some of those doubts. The first major step came on grass in Stuttgart last summer, when he won his first title, which gave him a “massive sense of calm”. He referenced the nature of top-level tennis, in which many top-ranked players can go their whole careers without ever winning a title.
After securing his second title in Vienna at the end of last year, Draper picked up a hip injury before the Australian Open but showed his competitive strength and desire again by winning three back‑to‑back five‑set matches to make the last 16. After shoulder, abdominal and hip issues, he could be forgiven for thinking his body is a liability but the way he played in Indian Wells, where he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals, showed him that he can compete at the very top.
“[Winning Indian Wells] is big, big belief, big confidence,” he said. “It’s weird. I felt like I’d been building towards moments like that one for a while, especially at the end of last year. I was really building a level, and I was improving and getting better, then getting better and better each week and getting more confident. And then obviously had that injury at the back end last year, and went to Australia, and I was completely out of sorts physically with my tennis.
“But then that experience there, getting those matches in my body, and then going to Doha and getting some wins there, I was trying to just get back to where I was before and even better, so I think just certifies more belief in me that I belong at this highest level and that, you know, I really have earned the position I’m in. Now I’ve just got to keep on moving forwards, keep on improving, keep on doing all the things that have, you know, helped me get to this point so far.”
Not only that, Draper’s dreams are growing, with an eye firmly on achieving the ultimate in tennis, winning one of the sport’s biggest titles, a grand slam crown. “Having that Stuttgart title really helped me to feel like, wow, I’ve got that now and then I can build on that,” he says. “Obviously from there on in, you know, semis US Open and winning Vienna, now winning Indian Wells, all these things, they’re helping me to sort of feel like, I’m really getting in the right direction. I’m going for things that I thought were never possible and to feel like I’ve done those things that I maybe thought weren’t possible now, to move forward and feel like the goals in front of me are realistic, you know, that’s important,” he said.
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Clay may present a few more problems for Draper, though. He won just four matches in six events on the surface last year, culminating in a first-round defeat at Roland Garros, even if three of them were tight three-set losses to good players. He plays either Denis Shapovalov of Canada or the American Marcos Giron in his first match here but though he admits clay is “not my first, first surface”, good sessions with Fearnley at the National Tennis Centre have left him optimistic and curious to see how he goes. He also knows that putting the miles on clay can pay dividends later in the year.
“I’m still yet to feel like I’ve won matches and be really confident on the surface, but I definitely feel like if I can have some really good success over the next month or so that will set me up even more for what’s to come for the rest of the season,” the Londoner says.
“I’ve obviously got a lot to prove to myself and on the surface. I think that will come with time, more experience. I think my game, the way it’s improving all the time, and the way I’m being more tactically aware and physically stronger, all these things coming together, I’m interested to see over the next month and a half, how effective I can be on this surface. But I really do believe I can be really effective, that’s for sure.”
Source: theguardian.com
