Draper “very determined to change” after Wimbledon loss
The Brit says his game needs to improve on grass specifically
Imago/Psnewz
Jack Draper reflected candidly on the shortcomings of his game after losing to Marin Cilic in the second round of Wimbledon in London on Thursday afternoon.
The No 4 seed crashed out in four sets, with Cilic all but taking the racquet out of his hand with a brilliant display of grass-court tennis. Draper says that his own game on the surface has a way to go, describing the result as “one of the toughest losses” of his career.
“I’ve been really disappointed with the way my game’s been on the grass this year, in all honesty,” the Brit said to the media after his 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 loss.
“I wasn’t feeling too great at Queen’s. I don’t know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final.
“Yeah, highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass, in all honesty. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn’t many holes, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference.
“So it’s just something that I’ve got to keep in mind, how I’m going to develop my game for the long-term for next year, just to get better as a player. For sure, highlighted a lot of weaknesses in my game, especially against a player the way he was playing today, someone who’s as good as him on the grass.”
Forehand an issue for Draper on the grass
Diving deeper into detail, Draper outlined that the main issue for him on the surface is his forehand, which was still very much in clay-court mode this week.
“I think the hole in my forehand showed up, for sure. 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 drawing inspiration from clay success
There’s a determination in Draper to improve his game on grass, with the 23-year-old drawing inspiration from his recent improvement on clay.
“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,” he said.
“I think there’s a bit of a misconception like, just ’cause I’m a 6’4″ lefty, I must be incredible on grass. 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 think the last couple weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I’ve had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I’ve still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game. In some ways that’s exciting, and in some ways that’s hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.
“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.”
