Jack Draper finds room for improvement as he dreams of Grand Slam glory
The British number one secured the biggest win of his career to date in Indian Wells.
Jack Draper believes he has plenty of room for improvement in pursuit of his “huge goal” of winning a Grand Slam title.
The British number one secured the biggest win of his career to date in Indian Wells, thrashing Holger Rune 6-2 6-2 in the final of the BNP Paribas Open to win his first ATP Masters 1000 title.
The victory has lifted Draper, who beat Carlos Alcaraz in the last four, to a career-high seventh in the world rankings and raised expectations that the 23-year-old can challenge for the game’s biggest titles.
“That’s still obviously something I’m working towards,” said Draper, who reached the semi-finals of the US Open last year, losing to world number one Jannik Sinner after being sick on court in New York.
“It’s kind of different in the slams, it’s five sets, it’s a little bit of a change. But I’m definitely believing more and more that I can compete consistently against the top players in the world. I feel like I belong completely.
“There’s a lot of things that can still improve in my game, which is really exciting. I feel like a lot of players maybe are kind of maxed out in some ways. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to work on and a lot to uncover with my tennis.
“I wasn’t ever thinking about winning a 250 or 500 or 1000 or semis of a major and I’ve done those things just based off working hard and putting one foot in front of the other, knuckling down trying to improve all the time, trying to be the best player I can be.
“It’s obviously a huge goal of mine to win a slam, but at the same time I know that to get there all I have to do is keep working, keep on believing in myself and just doing all the right things and that’s going to give myself the best shot of potentially doing that feat.
“I definitely believe I’m going to have the chances in my career to be on that big stage and hopefully do that.”
Draper, who had been managing a hip problem coming into Indian Wells, believes improving his forehand has been a key factor in his rise up the rankings.
“I worked really hard on it with my coach [James Trotman],” he added.
“When I first started working with him my forehand was a weapon but it was also a weakness.
“My backhand, I could always hit that with my eyes closed but with the forehand I felt that putting any pace into it was a problem and also the ability to hurt off that side.
“I remember when I played Carlos [Alcaraz] here a couple of years ago I felt like I couldn’t hit the skin off a rice pudding so I feel like I’ve come a long way with that.”
