Patrick Mouratoglou disagrees with Andy Roddick over Jack Draper’s ‘suspect’ fitness issues
Andy Roddick suggested Jack Draper was hampered by “suspect” fitness levels after he broke through on the ATP Tour, but Patrick Mouratoglou has offered an alternative view on the British star’s injury issues.
Draper made his initial break into the upper echelons of the ATP Rankings a couple of years ago, but his ambitions were halted by injury problems and on-court fitness concerns that often affected his progress.
After he was forced to pull out of high-profile matches and suffered from camps and sickness on court, former world No 1 Roddick suggested Draper would not become a champion unless he solved his fitness issues.
“I think, up until eight months ago, his fitness was suspect,” said Roddick on the latest Served podcast, after Draper won the Indian Wells Masters title and broke into the top 10 of the ATP Rankings for the first time.
“There were a lot of injuries, there were points in matches even at the US Open where he vomited. Now he seems to have improved.”
Now Mouratoglou has offered a contrasting view on Draper’s fitness, as he spoke exclusively to Tennis365 ahead of the launch of his compelling new book Champion Mindset.
The former coach of Serena Williams and current mentor of four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka believes Draper’s fitness issues may have been mental as much as physical, as he believes the young Brit has now appreciated what is required to control his emotions on the court.
“When you see a young player struggling physically like Jack was, that can sometimes be mental more than physical,” the Frenchman told Tennis365.
“The cramps Jack had and I also remember him throwing up during some matches. This is probably mental and it takes time to find a way to understand this and to control it.
“Sometimes you go through moments at the start of your career when you really start to break through that there are so many hopes and expectations on his shoulders. Not just from the player, but also from everyone around him. Also, all of Britain wants him to win as well, I guess. That can be very difficult to handle.
“What I believe about Jack is he is very ambitious and extremely courageous. He has the right mentality to win, but he had to understand how to control that on court.
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“I know him a little bit and I see a player who has a lot of self-confidence, but he had some physical problems in matches because of dealing with stress. I’m sure this is something he is going to solve.
“He also had some serious injuries and it takes time to solve those. He is a big guy and like most of the big guys, they can have physical problems.”
Mouratoglou went on to suggest taller and more powerful athletes on the men’s tour have the biggest challenge to avoid injuries, as he compared Draper to former Grand Slam champion Juan Martin del Potro.
“Now he has a great team around him and they have done all the work that is needed to present injuries for an athlete of that size,” he added. “He’s tall, he’s strong and you need to pay even more attention to the bigger guys.
“Look at someone like Juan Martin del Potro and he had a lot of injury problems. This is because it is tough for the bigger guys to avoid injury and this is an issue Jack needs to be on top of because it can stop him from going to the very top.
“He’s a great player. We knew that before he won Indian Wells. I’m not surprised he is now in the top ten and there is much more to come.”
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