Latest news with #RogerDraper
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Jack Draper vs Sebastian Baez: Score and latest Wimbledon updates
01 July 2025 5:49pm 5:49PM Draper will win big, big titles': Sinner on bromance with British No 1 By Simon Briggs Jannik Sinner was in a snoozy mood. He must have yawned three or four times while I was interviewing him, which does not say much for the originality of my questions. But one subject sparked his interest. Asked about his friendship with Jack Draper – the latest British hero to enter the labyrinth of Wimbledon – Sinner perked up noticeably and leaned forward. From the beady look in his eye, he could have been preparing to return serve. 'You're lucky to have a player like him,' said Sinner, the top seed and world No 1. 'After Andy [Murray], they need someone big. He [Draper] is someone big, and he's someone who is going to stay there for a very, very long time.' Click here to read the rest of Simon's interview with the Italian world No 1. 5:43PM Draper has been fuelled by 'nepo baby' jibes By Simon Briggs There was a period in Jack Draper's life – the best part of a decade, in fact – when he could barely enter a tournament without someone bringing up his parentage. As the son of Roger Draper, the man who ran British tennis from 2007 to 2013, Jack was the ultimate nepo baby. Rival parents saw him as a lucky swine, unfairly promoted ahead of their own little darlings. This is entirely typical of junior tennis: a seething cauldron of jealousy and spite that would make an irresistible reality TV show. Such resentments inevitably fed through to the other young players. When I first interviewed Draper, in the summer of 2020, he told me, 'I would often go to junior tournaments and have 15 boys on the balcony I had never seen before willing me on to lose, making noises before I serve.' One wonders what all those hecklers are thinking now, as Draper prepares to enter Wimbledon as the fourth seed. Do they still believe that his career benefited from preferential treatment? Do they imagine themselves walking out on No1 Court, if only they had been similarly favoured? Click here to read the rest of Simon's piece. 5:34PM Boost for Draper Before Draper has even stepped onto court, he will have been boosted by the surprise exit of Alexander Bublik, who knocked him out of the French Open last month. Bublik, fresh from capturing his second Halle title last month, cut a frustrated figure towards the end of a lacklustre opening set against Jaume Munar on Court No 14 where he surrendered his serve two times and barely dipped into his bag of tricks. Having swapped his headband for a cap to shield himself from the heat, Bublik appeared a player transformed in the next set as he quickly found his range and erased the deficit after forcing Munar into a backhand error on set point. The big crowds braving conditions on the outside court to catch the Kazakh trickster had to settle for a more workmanlike display early in the third set as Bublik fought back from 1-3 down before offering glimpses of his drop-shot brilliance. With his tail up after securing the third set, 28th seed Bublik raced ahead in the fourth and was serving for the match at 5-4 before Munar clawed back to make it two sets apiece via the tiebreak. Munar capitalised from there as the world No 55 took control of the match with an early break in the decider and sent his opponent tumbling out with minimum fuss. 5:24PM Draper begins title bid Hello and welcome to coverage of the great British hope for Wimbledon, Jack Draper. Last year, Draper crashed out in the second round to Cameron Norrie in a very disappointing result. Since then, the 23-year-old has enjoyed an excellent 12 months, winning two titles including his first Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells. He has also risen to fourth in the world rankings and that means expectations are high for a decent run this year. 'Obviously when Andy retired, they said I was the next in line,' said Draper. 'I know it's Wimbledon coming up, but I think I didn't really think about it then, and I've improved so much and put myself in this position. 'I'll do my best to keep trying and improving, to show my best tennis out there, to hopefully present myself as the player and the person I want to be. 'Obviously Andy has done an unbelievable job of that and has been incredibly successful and has become adored by the nation. It's obviously big shoes to fill. I'm aware of that. At the same time I'm confident in myself that hopefully I can inspire people like Andy has done.' Draper's prospects do not appear to have been helped by a brutal draw that put young star Jakub Mensik, Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner all in his path. But the fourth seed is not yet looking past his first-round opponent, Argentina's Sebastian Baez. 'I haven't looked at that at all,' he said. 'I look at my first round, who I have. I respect every person in the draw. Obviously I've got Baez on Tuesday, and I'm not looking further than that. 'I know he's a strong player. He's here off his own merit. I look no further than him. I try and think about that as I go on. But, firstly, we'll start with that one.'
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Jack Draper has been fuelled by ‘nepo baby' jibes
There was a period in Jack Draper's life – the best part of a decade, in fact – when he could barely enter a tournament without someone bringing up his parentage. As the son of Roger Draper, the man who ran British tennis from 2007 to 2013, Jack was the ultimate nepo baby. Rival parents saw him as a lucky swine, unfairly promoted ahead of their own little darlings. This is entirely typical of junior tennis: a seething cauldron of jealousy and spite that would make an irresistible reality TV show. Such resentments inevitably fed through to the other young players. When I first interviewed Draper, in the summer of 2020, he told me, 'I would often go to junior tournaments and have 15 boys on the balcony I had never seen before willing me on to lose, making noises before I serve.' One wonders what all those hecklers are thinking now, as Draper prepares to enter Wimbledon as the fourth seed. Do they still believe that his career benefited from preferential treatment? Do they imagine themselves walking out on No1 Court, if only they had been similarly favoured? In all probability, plenty do take that view. We are all familiar with the sort of bar-room bore who insists that they would have played for Manchester United, had they not been the victim of a career-ending challenge on Hackney Marshes. But this is to underestimate the ingredients required to climb near the top of a global sport such as tennis. Athleticism and technique will only take you so far. To win a $10 million tournament like Indian Wells, as Draper did in March, you need an X-factor… not to mention a Y-factor and a Z-factor as well. During that same interview in 2020, Draper told me: 'There's always going to be people thinking that I am getting better treatment or whatever. But at the end of the day I am 280 in the world at the age of 18, and my dad has not done that for me. I am the one who has put all my efforts and hard work and sacrifices into being a good tennis player.' The sceptics probably scoffed at this comment. They had consistently painted Draper as an over-promoted ninny with more money than talent, and they weren't about to change their minds. Yet his continuing evolution has made them look daft. Admittedly, Draper's early outings on the tour betrayed a few obvious shortcomings. He wilted in the heat. He hit too many unthreatening rally balls. He didn't make enough first serves. But an expert observer could also discern the rudiments of a world-class game. And when you combine a Trojan work ethic with a ruthlessly clear-eyed view of your own weaknesses, it's amazing how quickly the diamond emerges from the ore. At this year's Wimbledon, the latest version of Draper will be a revelation for those who haven't watched him recently. He has developed into a very different animal to the man who collapsed on the court in his very first ATP match in Miami. On top of being a physical beast, he has become an assertive tactician and a reliable server with a knack for banging down aces when he most needs them. This season's win-loss record of 28-8 is comfortably the best of his career. 'The thing about Jack is that he has always been a fantastic natural competitor, even from a very early age,' says the experienced coach Calvin Betton. 'People like that will usually find a way.' No one is denying that Draper enjoyed advantages in life. Like Tim Henman, he attended Reed's, a fee-paying school in Surrey where he was coached by the brilliant Ben Haran – a man more recently involved in guiding 16-year-old Hannah Klugman's career. But then, few of the junior rivals who went up against Draper would have been drawn from housing estates either. Tennis is self-selecting in that way: the day-to-day costs of training and travelling form a natural barrier to entry. While the exclusion of working-class families is regrettable on any number of levels, Betton – who himself comes from a gritty part of Barnsley – disputes the idea that the less privileged must necessarily be hungrier for success. 'I've worked with all sorts of families,' he told Telegraph Sport, 'and the most committed kid I ever saw was the son of two Cambridge University professors.' It's true that the most driven athletes tend to have faced some sort of trauma or challenge in their upbringing. But that can come in any number of forms. The young Rafael Nadal was conditioned to be a relentless competitor by his uncle Toni, a harsh disciplinarian whose tough love often alarmed Rafa's parents, while the young Roger Federer only really focused on his tennis after the loss of his beloved coach Peter Carter in a car accident. For Draper, perhaps it was the barracking from the balcony that helped sharpen his desire in the first place. Speaking about it years later, he dismissed it as 'just kids' stuff'. But the very fact that it stuck in his mind shows how much it hurt. More recently, Draper has become something of a specialist in facing down hostile crowds. There were successive five-set victories over a pair of Aussies in Melbourne in January, followed by an equally thrilling late-night win over home favourite Gael Monfils at the recent French Open. So, maybe being a nepo baby really did help Draper. Just not in the way his critics thought.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jack Draper could be in for £3million payout if he wins Wimbledon this year... in which case the British number one could swap his humble £1,000 Polo for a Porsche like Emma Raducanu
As Britain's No 1 tennis player, he is in line for a bumper £3 million payday if he can battle through a challenging draw to scoop this year's Wimbledon trophy. But unlike many successful sports stars, Jack Draper looks set to keep things pretty humble. These exclusive pictures show the 23-year-old still driving around in a battered VW Polo – quite the contrast to the £125,000 Porsche that Emma Raducanu bagged in a lucrative sponsorship deal after winning the 2021 US Open. Taken earlier this month, the photos show Jack filling up the 12-year-old car – worth a measly £1,000 – at a petrol station in Ashtead, Surrey. It is close to where he grew up as the son of former Sport England and Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper, and 12 miles from the All England tennis club where he will make his first appearance this week against Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the world's No 38. Draper clearly has a down-to-earth approach that shows his mind is on the game – and not on any potential spoils, which may, in any case, be transient. Raducanu had to hand back her Porsche 911 Carrera late last year, after her world rankings slipped, and she was subsequently seen driving her own modest car, a £5,000 second-hand Dacia Sandero. While Draper's vehicle looked like it has taken a battering over the years, the same cannot be said of his career. These exclusive pictures show the 23-year-old still driving around in a battered VW Polo The past 12 months have seen a remarkable breakthrough, having started last year's grass court season as the world No 40. He reached his first grand slam semi-final at the US Open in September, and took his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in March before reaching the semi-finals at Queen's this month. Now ranked fourth in the world, it is thought his professional earnings have topped £5 million. But Wimbledon, where he has yet to pass the second round, could be his toughest challenge yet with a tough route to the final. 'I'm really excited to go out there to compete,' said Draper, who has just recovered from a bout of tonsillitis. '[I'm] full of excitement knowing the crowd is right behind me – that I'm going to be playing on the courts that I wanted to play on since I was young, watching [Andy] Murray, watching all these great players perform out there – and it feels amazing to know that.'
Telegraph
29-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Jack Draper vs Gael Monfils: Score and latest updates from French Open
The first factoid people usually quote about Jack Draper is that his father Roger used to be the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association. But Roger was absent from the player box on Tuesday for Draper's maiden victory at the French Open. Instead, the seats were occupied by Jack's brother Ben, his mother Nicky and his grandfather Chris Entract. There is another family narrative here, running alongside the LTA one, and it relates to the awful illness that has robbed Chris's wife Brenda of her memory. The trauma of her condition has led Jack to become an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society. In December, he organised a 'memory walk' along the banks of the Thames in her honour. To read the full article by the Telegraph Sport tennis correspondent, click here.
