The untold story of Jack Draper and the British prospect under his wing

Telegraph

11 hours ago

Late in the gloaming on Tuesday night, Wimbledon witnessed back-to-back victories from a pair of talented young Britons, both of whom had been nurtured deep in Surrey's stockbroker belt.
Or perhaps we should call it Jack-to-Jack victories, as the players in question – raised in the neighbouring villages of Ashtead and Cobham – were 23-year-old Jack Draper and 22-year-old Jack Pinnington Jones.
On Tuesday, the jumping Jacks found themselves in contrasting settings. While Draper delivered his victory speech to 12,000 spectators, whose number included fashion model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Pinnington Jones was still battling away on Court 17 – a grassy postage stamp without enough seating capacity to accommodate all the Lawn Tennis Association's officials.
But in the interview room afterwards, these former junior rivals revealed that they are actually close buddies, having regularly shared early-morning lifts to the National Tennis Centre in Draper's battered old Polo. In those early years, it was clearly beneficial for Pinnington Jones to have had Draper on hand, acting as a companion and mentor. But there was also a potential downside: the constant danger of a horrible prang on the A3.
'I have seen him at his worst,' said Pinnington Jones, when asked about the quality of Draper's driving. 'He had just passed his test, he was normally too confident. But he's got better. And he let me have aux.'
Let you have what? Upon further investigation, we discovered Pininngton Jones was talking about the 'auxiliary' cable to connect his smartphone to the in-car radio. They may be young, but they are old enough to know the days before Bluetooth.
'He really likes Skepta,' added Pinnington Jones, referencing an artist who – according to Wikipedia – is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. 'I'd always try and please him by playing British rap. I'm quite into my house music, but at 6.30am it's hard to be pumped for house music.' Basement Jaxx, perhaps?
🤩 "It couldn't have been a much better day than this"
✅ A main draw Grand Slam debut win for Jack Pinnington Jones 🇬🇧 #BBCTennis #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/50NMGXMf0H
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) July 1, 2025
Draper grinned when he was asked about those early starts, admitting that they had caused regular arguments. Meanwhile Pinnington Jones described them as 'brutal', adding that 'Jack hates sitting in traffic, so we used to set off when no one else was awake.'
As the younger man by 15 months, Pinnington Jones still had not turned 17, which is why he needed chauffeuring to the NTC in Roehampton, south-west London. He spent countless early mornings in his mate's old Polo, which Draper is still employing despite on-court earnings of £2.32 million already this year.
'He treats his car awfully,' said Pinnington Jones, who followed in the footsteps of Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley by honing his game at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. 'He's like, 'I don't need a nice car in London, I'm going to ding it anyway.' It's the same car he got when he first passed. He has some boxing gloves in the wing mirror. He loves it.'
The journey used to only take 20 minutes, but the cafe at the NTC did not open until 8am, so there would be an hour of sitting around and 'talking rubbish', in Draper's words. Then the pecking order kicked in. Draper would go on court at 9.30am and Pinnington Jones would have to wait until 11am.
The whole scene sounds delightfully wholesome, and demonstrates that junior rivals can still be friends, even if Pinnington Jones was a year behind the strong 2001-born group of Draper, Fearnley and George Loffhagen. A pair of jacks makes a useful hand in poker, and could be even more beneficial for British tennis.
'Jack [Draper] is always looking out for me,' said Pinnington Jones, shortly after he had claimed his first tour-level victory by defeating Tomás Martín Etcheverry, the world No 53, in straight sets on Tuesday night.
'I just saw him after the match. He came up, congratulated me. He sent me a text just before I went on saying, 'You're ready for this, go and embrace it.' It just means a lot he's there supporting me. Maybe one day I can get up, maybe not to where he is, but where we are playing the same tournaments.
'For him to believe that I could be there and I'm on the right track is pretty special,' added Pinnington Jones, whose opening-round win has lifted his world ranking some 60 places and into the top 250 for the first time.
'He's seen me at some low points in my career. He's seen me right now at some high points. He's always been the same mindset of, 'Hey, you put in the work, you'll get what you deserve in this game.' That's something that stuck with me.'