British No.1 tennis star Jack Draper has vowed to ‘shake up’ the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz after lifting the Vienna Open trophy.
The 22-year-old, who has already drawn comparisons to British tennis legend Andy Murray, clinched the second ATP Tour title of his career on Sunday.
Draper has enjoyed a superb 2024 season and produced his greatest Grand Slam performance to date at the US Open, with an impressive run to the semi-finals.
The world No.15 is far from being done there, though, and wants to take his game to the next level to rival world No.1 Sinner and world No.2 Alcaraz.
Sinner and Alcaraz have started dominating on the ATP Tour with the ‘Big Three’ era of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer finally coming to an end.
Federer retired in 2022, Nadal is set to hang up his racket in November and while Djokovic is continuing for now, he is not expected to have long left in the sport.
Draper has firmly got his eyes on Sinner and Alcaraz as the Briton said in his post-match press conference: ‘I’ll go again for next year with even bigger motivation.
‘[I want] to really shake up those guys at the top of the game – the likes of Sinner and Alcaraz.
‘If I can keep on improving physically and keep on getting more and more experience at this higher level against top players then I’m going to give myself a shot to hopefully be competing with those guys. But there’s a lot of work to do.’
Alcaraz registered an remarkable Channel Slam this year, lifting the French Open trophy on clay before walking away with the Wimbledon title on grass.
Sinner, meanwhile, tasted glory at the other two major tournaments, triumphing at the Australian Open and US Open.
Draper has played three ATP Tour matches against Alcaraz to date, losing the first two before beating the Spaniard at Queen’s Club this summer.
Against Sinner, Draper has won once and lost once, with the Italian coming out on top in their most recent encounter in the last four at Flushing Meadows.