Jack Draper will head to Wimbledon with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it will be interesting to see how he deals with such pressure.
After all, this marks the first home Grand Slam where he has been the British number one, and he sits fourth in the world as well to further reinforce that expectation.
People think that, with home support and moving to a surface that should favour him, Jack Draper will thrive.
However, he has sought to disprove one theory about Wimbledon that is just plain wrong.
Jack Draper speaks about playing on grass courts
Chatting live on the Rennae Stubbs podcast, the British number one admitted that, despite this being his home Grand Slam, he is far from the favourite.
At least, that was what could be inferred from his statement about the surface, which many do expect him and other Brits to thrive on.
However, he instead stated: ‘Yeah, it’s a different surface, you have to get used to it. Different transition from playing on the clay courts.
‘I think people think “Oh, you’re from England, you must love playing on the grass.” It’s like, we never play on grass. It’s still a transition and adjustment and yeah, getting used to that and last week, it was good to get some matches and hopefully at Wimbledon, I’m going to be playing some better tennis.’
Whilst he may have grown up around more grass courts than the average American, South American or European player on tour, since he was a young prodigy he likely will not have spent much time on them given how tiny their split of the tennis season is.
Jack Draper’s Wimbledon draw has not been kind
Yesterday morning, the Wimbledon draw was made for the men’s and women’s singles competition. And so, Draper learned his fate.
It’s fair to say that it could have been kinder.
The 23-year-old will kickstart his campaign against Sebastian Baez, which should be a comfortable victory given the Argentine has never performed well on the All-England Club’s turf.
However, next up comes Marin Cilic, a former Grand Slam champion, albeit at the twilight of his career.
Should he cruise through those first two rounds, as he is expected to, who else but Alexander Bublik should await him in the third round.
The 29-year-old knocked Draper out of the French Open earlier this month, and has just won his second Halle Open title in three years.
And this is just the start.
Draper’s Wimbledon draw is a thing of nightmares.
