Jack Draper’s coach on the British youngster’s ‘phenomenal’ effort

ATP Tour
Jack Draper applauding

He has emerged as one of the rising stars of the ATP Tour in recent weeks and now Britain’s Jack Draper is eyeing up a big summer on home soil.

Draper will rise to No 122 in the latest rankings and he could be closing in on automatic entry into Grand Slam events if he continues to make strides forward after his run to the second round of the ATP Masters event in Miami was backed up by four wins in ATP Challenger events this year.

Now Draper’s coach James Trotman has told Eurosport that the youngster’s run of form was not what was expected at the start of 2022.

“It’s exceeded expectations for sure,” stated Trotman.

“After he won his first Challenger at the start of the year we were having a conversation and spoke about how there’s one thing that’s certain with tennis: there’s always a winner and a loser.

“You can’t hide from that. I said ‘look if you have three weeks this year when you don’t lose you have had a really good year in my view’. He’s obviously gone four weeks already and we’re only in March.

“It’s a phenomenal effort and above our expectations at the start of the year.”

“Pre-season was really important for him,” says Trotman. “It gave him a sustained chunk of time to work on his body and work on his on-court movement and his ability to sustain high levels.”

Trotman revealed Draper has been working hard in the gym, with his efforts reaping huge rewards.

“He’s done a lot of strength training and on-court conditioning and speed and agility work,” he added of a player who looks certain to be handed a Wimbledon wildcard if he doesn’t qualify for the draw automatically in June.

“Whenever we get the opportunity we are trying to plan his schedule well to get training blocks in because he’s not the finished article, which is exciting because there’s so much room for development with his physicality and on-court tennis game. The strength side of things was definitely a big focus, especially in the lower body to get the legs stronger.

“All tennis players the goal is to keep improving and developing. Jack had quite a bad injury history over the last couple of years so one of the key goals when we started working together was to stay fit and healthy and gain momentum on the court. Touch wood that has been better from the end of last year to the start of this year.”

Jack Draper

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