Jack Draper is one of the favourites to win the 2025 Men’s Singles title at Wimbledon, following a meteoric rise to number four in the world.
Big-serving Draper will be looking to better his second-round exit at last year’s Wimbledon Championships and close the gap to rivals Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
Draper may be able to handle the pressure at Wimbledon, but the question remains as to how the British number one can catch the unquestionable top two players in the world.
Former world number 12 Feliciano Lopez has discussed how the 23-year-old can close the gap to Alcaraz and Sinner.
Feliciano Lopez says Jack Draper needs to be more consistent
Speaking to Sky Sports, Lopez said: “I still see a bit of a gap between Carlos, Jannik and the rest of the players. Jack and Novak are probably the ones that could beat them and grass is the surface where Jack and Novak will have a bigger chance.
“But the way they’ve been playing lately, I don’t see any signs of weakness from Carlos or Jannik.
“I think Jack is a very complete player. I think if he keeps developing his game, he’d have a good chance against Carlos and Jannik on grass.
“He probably needs to be a bit more consistent week after week. When he’s able to reach his best level I think he has proved already that he can beat anyone. We saw some of that in Indian Wells when he won the title, also in Madrid, and actually he’s one of the players that I love watching.
Despite the constructive advice, Lopez praised Draper for his ‘truly amazing’ development and tipped the Brit to challenge some of the greatest current players on tour.
The former professional said: “The amount of improvement in the last 18 months is truly amazing.
“I remember two years ago at the US Open, when he was preparing for his first-round match. My concern was whether he was going to play because he was coming back from a shoulder injury and had pulled out of the Winston-Salem Open the week before, so I was wondering if he was going to be able to compete over the best-of-five sets.
“Two years after that, he’s number four in the world. It’s truly amazing what he has done and he’s for me the player who’s going to be willing to fight it out with Carlos and Novak for the big titles on grass.”
Draper is still the only man to have beaten Carlos Alcaraz at the Queen’s Club Championships
Despite a disappointing loss in the semi-finals of the Queen’s Club Championships, Draper can take solace in the fact that he remains the only player to have vanquished Carlos Alcaraz at the tournament.
The Brit beat Alcaraz 7-6 6-3 in the round of 16 at the 2024 tournament, before losing to eventual winner Tommy Paul.
Alcaraz who won his second Queen’s Club title on Sunday, also won in 2023. He will go into Wimbledon hoping to win his third straight title – something only Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras have done.
