You can’t lose to a guy with a metal hip!
Draper ‘taunt’ for Murray as Brits prepare to return
JACK DRAPER was playing against Andy Murray last week and he reports the latter was not pleased at losing their full-on practice set.
‘I beat him 7-6. Neither of us was in great form and he took it badly,’ says the 18 year-old, who carries t he weight of being Murray’s potential long-term successor.
These warm-ups for the coming ‘Battle of the Brits’, which begins on Tuesday, have been accompanied by plenty of trash talk among the eight leading GB men participating in the return of the professional game to these shores.
‘It’s a disgrace if you lose to a guy with a metal hip,’ says Draper. He delivers the line in a lighthearted manner but you slightly wonder if many a true word is spoken in jest.
Indeed, Draper finds himself cast in the role of upstart this week. ‘We have had this group chat for six weeks, I’m getting so much abuse on it,’ he says. ‘I tried radio silence for a week but I was still getting blasted. I ended up having a couple of beers on a Saturday night and went in on all of them, which was satisfying. Andy likes to give it out but he can take it.
‘ Twenty years ago if you were giving someone a lot of gip or banter it was a sign that they respect you, but these days it might be taken as hurting your feelings. I just enjoy it. Next week is going to be really good. Pride is on the line.’
Much attention will be on Murray, playing his f i rst match si nce mid-November when he kicks off his opening group match on Tuesday, against Liam Broady. ‘He [Murray] is just happy to be playing again,’ says Draper. ‘He has a metal hip but he is still moving pretty well.’
While it never pays to read too much into the result of one practice set, the teenager’s 7- 6 win is a reminder of how the coming week should be viewed. One i s that expectations about what Murray can achieve on his return to action should be tempered. Another is that
Draper, a 6ft 3in left-hander from Surrey, is already one to watch.
He is the second youngest player in the world’s top 300 and his ranking would doubtless be higher were it not for the current hiatus after he also missed chunks of last season with injury.
His all-court game does not much resemble that of Murray, but to watch them is to recognise some shared characteristics.
There is a similar desperation to win and a naturally high tennis IQ when it comes to navigating their way through points. Both were brought up by parents with tennis expertise. Draper’s mother, Nicky, is a coach and continues to be a top national senior player in her age group. More well-known is that his father, Roger, was chief executive of t he Lawn Tennis Association, who has gone on to work in rugby league and in football for the Saudi Arabian authorities.
Since their divorce he has had little involvement in his son’s tennis, which is now mainly in the hands of British coach Ryan Jones, who played a major part in the early development of Kyle Edmund and Croatia’s Borna Coric. It would, of course, be ironic if Draper senior is shown to have made such a direct contribution to the fortunes of the British game through the eventual feats of his son.
When Draper junior plays his opening match against Derby’s Jay Clarke it will represent a resumption following what will be the longest rain delay of his career, which goes back to March 11. ‘I was in South Africa playing a tournament when it all kicked off,’ he says. ‘I was 5-4 in the third set of my second- round match when we came off for rain. ‘Then we got an email from the ATP saying that after t oday we are cancelling everything. Then the rain didn’t stop so that was it and we came home the next day. ‘I played a lot of tennis at the start of the year and was ready f or a break but, after two or three weeks at home, the novelty wore off and I started to get bored. ‘I just tried to stay fit and did no tennis for eight weeks. But for the last month I’ve been able to work on things. Ryan and I have done a lot of work on my transition game going forward and volleying. I can really feel the improvement.’ This week’s event has been organised by Jamie Murray. There will be no such thing as ball kids under strict anti-Covid protocols and the line decisions will be made by Hawk-Eye. Unlike some exhibition events springing up, this one promises to be very competitive. And there is a chance of it being repeated, rather than being consigned as a footnote to sport’s coronavirus history.