What Jack Draper ‘really wants’ from the Queen’s crowd this week which he hasn’t received anywhere else this year

As the number two seed, there’s hope that he can make a really strong run and set up a grandstand final with Carlos Alcaraz.

The 22-year-old outlined another thing that he’s hoping to receive from this event though, just after Draper gave his thoughts on the Roland Garros final.

What Jack Draper is hoping from the Queen’s crowd

Appearing on The Tennis Podcast, Broady provided her insight into how all the ATP players were feeling ahead of Queen’s this week.

After all, she has interviewed most of them, including Alcaraz and Jack Draper.

Speaking about the latter, she revealed the extent of their conversation, noting: ‘He said he’s feeling good and I kind of asked him a little bit of his expectations for Wimbledon and how’s he feeling with that pressure? Does it motivate him or is it pressure in all the expectations this year?

‘Because he’s going to be one of the top seeds at Wimbledon and you’d have thought with his game style or one of the favourites on the grass as well, but we saw it with Andy [Murray]. It’s an incredibly difficult hat to wear in British tennis.

‘But Jack said he just hopes that the crowd are behind him. He said he’s had to play a lot of matches this year with the crowd against him, but he said he loves that atmosphere, but he really just wants to hear the noise of the crowd when they’re then behind him.

‘He seemed in a really good headspace. He’s happy to be home, he was relaxed, happy to be back on the grass, and made a few comments as well about maybe wanting to adjust that return position. We’d seen him drop so far deep on the clay. So maybe wanting to close that back up to the baseline a bit more for the grass as he looks a bit more aggressive.

‘But I mean he made the Junior Wimbledon final so he’s been good on this surface, naturally like Carlos [Alcaraz] his game just fit on it from such a young age.’

Can Jack Draper deal with British expectations this year?

As briefly touched upon by Broady, the pressure for Draper this year will arguably never have been as high.

After all, he has set the bar so high after a stunning 12 months on tour, hitting career milestones with incredible regularity, culminating in reaching fourth in the world rankings.

Already guaranteed to be one of the top seeds at Wimbledon, that alone will see much of the home crowd want a deep run.

However, that pressure begins now at Queen’s, where a similarly expectant support will be watching on.

This almost acts as a dress rehearsal for the big event at the All-England Club, starting later this month.

Draper has dealt with the weight of expectation well thus far this year, building as the months go by. Reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, whilst winning a Masters 1000 title in between, marked a fine showing.

But, realistically, he will need to go further at Wimbledon to satisfy the hopes of the British public. He has all the tools to do so, and the early signs of this mental fortitude seem good too.