Jack Draper is ready to be Britain’s No1 after Andy Murray’s retirement – but he won’t be spending his time stressing over it.
The 23-year-old heads to Australia next week to get ready for the first Grand Slam of 2025. His career path is on a steep upward curve after kicking off 2024 ranked No62 and ending it by breaking into the top 15. Draper was surprised by Murray’s return as Novak Djokovic’s coach after the pair spent a lifetime trying to get one over the othe ron the court.
But down by the riverside, on a Memory Walk for the Alzheimer’s Society to honour his grandmother, Draper took it all in his stride. Murray was just 21 when he reached his first major final and this next year ahead could propel Draper’s promise from contender to splendour. He said: “When I think of what Andy’s done, I think it’s incredible – the next Andy Murray and all that stuff – but I don’t really think about that.
“But I’m not sitting every day in my living room thinking like, ‘I know, next year I’m going to be going to be the No.1 Brit and what’s that going to mean?’ I’m focused on what I’m doing, on how I’m going to be better. If that’s in Australia or midway through the year at Wimbledon, the main thing is that I’m going in the right direction and improving all the time. And I hope that I can be one of the top players in the world and that’s great for Great Britain.”
Murray called time on his on court career after bowing out at the Paris Olympics. He promised to spend more time on the greens of the golf course. But just over 100 days later he was back in the tennis cycle as Djokovic’s coach in an appointment which stunned the world of tennis.
Draper said: “What will Andy be like as a coach? It’s amazing that he’s coming back into tennis. I kind of figured that maybe he’d take a break and do others things. But one thing I do know about him is that he loves this sport. He was always talking tennis when we were away, he’s got a huge tennis brain and, tactically, I think he’d find it incredibly fun.
“To be around Djokovic, I think he’d find that interesting to see how one of his biggest rivals operates on a daily basis. Andy would be very excited for that and I’m looking forward to seeing how that dynamic unfolds.
“It’s similar to what Ivan Lendl gave Andy. Djokovic has won 24 Grand Slams, but they grew up together. It’s maybe a bit of a full circle moment for both of them. And I think that’s nice for them both.
“Maybe Novak feels like him and Andy are a kind of a team – someone who understands the game, who knows what it’s like to win the biggest tournaments and go through the amount of adversity that he has.
“It was a surprise when he came back as relatively soon as he did, but one thing I will say is that tennis gives you such a structure. It’s all about you, your training, your days and they seem to go pretty quickly.
“And when you get injured, or I imagine when you stop your career, it’s really hard to feel like you’ve got a purpose. Even if he is playing golf all day long and trying to get his handicap down, I’m sure Andy will feel there’s a big hole in his life.
“So for part of me it’s a shock that he’s going to be working with Djokovic. But also I can understand that he probably wants that buzz again, he wants to feel like he’s part of something big, he wants to be around crowds, he wants to be around top tennis.
“And maybe in hindsight, for someone who loves the sport as much as him, for someone who’s obviously experienced the highs that he’s had, I’m not too surprised that he’s come back to the sport quite quickly.”
Jack Draper was speaking at an Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk to honour his grandmother Brenda Entract, a former tennis professional and coach, who was diagnosed with the condition in 2015, six years before Draper’s professional debut.