Jack Draper: Three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Feliciano Lopez amazed by improvement from British No 1

Three-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Feliciano Lopez says Jack Draper’s improvement over the last 18 months is “truly amazing” – calling him a “very complete player”.

Draper has been on the rise since reaching the semi-finals of the US Open, sealing his maiden Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells, although he missed out on a first ATP Tour clay-court title as Casper Ruud edged an absorbing Madrid Open final.

The British No 1 laid low at home in the UK following his disappointing fourth-round defeat to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik at the French Open – before returning to the grass at Queen’s Club last week where a bout of tonsillitis put pay to his hopes in the semi-finals against Jiri Lehecka.

Lopez, tournament director in Madrid, saw Draper’s potential at first hand but is concerned that world No 1 Jannik Sinner and Roland-Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz are showing no signs of slowing down, having now shared the last six Grand Slam titles between them.

Draper is aiming to join the leading two players at the top of the men’s game, while Novak Djokovic is still chasing an historic 25th Grand Slam title.

I think Jack is a very complete player. I think if he keep developing his game, he’d have a good chance against Carlos and Jannik on grass.

“I still see a bit of a gap between Carlos, Jannik and the rest of the players. Jack and Novak are probably the ones that could beat them and grass is the surface where Jack and Novak will have a bigger chance,” said the Spaniard, who reached a career-high No 12.

“But the way they’ve been playing lately, I don’t see any signs of weakness from Carlos or Jannik.

“I think Jack is a very complete player. I think if he keep developing his game, he’d have a good chance against Carlos and Jannik on grass.

“He probably needs to be a bit more consistent week after week. When he’s able to reach his best level I think he has proved already that he can beat anyone. We saw some of that in Indian Wells when he won the title, also in Madrid, and actually he’s one of the players that I love watching.

“The amount of improvement in the last 18 months is truly amazing.

“I remember two years ago at the US Open, when he was preparing for his first-round match. My concern was whether he was going to play because he was coming back from a shoulder injury and had pulled out of the Winston-Salem Open the week before, so I was wondering if he was going to be able to compete over the best-of-five sets.

“Two years after that, he’s number four in the world. It’s truly amazing what he has done and he’s for me the player who’s going to be willing to fight it out with Carlos and Novak for the big titles on grass.”

Is this Djokovic’s last chance at winning a 25th Grand Slam?

“It’s hard to say whether this is Novak’s last opportunity because with Novak you have to be aware of what you say about him,” laughed left-hander Lopez, who won the French Open doubles title alongside Marc Lopez in 2016.

“He’s not at the levels of Carlos and Jannik, especially in the last 18 months, because the numbers speak for themselves, but the way he played against Sinner surprised me. He challenged Sinner and pushed him to the limit and, although the gap is still big, I see the grass as the only place for him to get to this level that they play because the grass is very different.

“Djokovic proved that he can still compete at this level but he will have a better chance on grass.”

Does Sinner have the game to play on grass?

Lopez said: “I think so, yes! His movement on the court is out of this world. To play on grass you need good movement and he’s probably one of the best movers on court right now.

“He has the movement, he has the serve, he has one of the best returns I’ve seen, so yes! He has almost everything.”

Is it a surprise to see Sinner and Alcaraz dominating as much as they are?

“No, not at all,” said the four-time Davis Cup winner. “They not only have the tennis skills, technically and physically they are probably the best in the world. But also their mentality and their ability to sustain that level for so long.

“We saw that in the French Open final when they were playing for five-and-a-half hours at the highest possible intensity.

“There are players in the game right now who can play one or two sets, but Sinner and Alcaraz have the ability to play at that super-high intensity for so long and I’ve not seen anyone else who can do that.”

Is Draper a contender to win Wimbledon?

Sky Sports commentator Jonathan Overend agrees with Lopez that Draper is part of an elite group of players who can potentially win Wimbledon, but claims he still has a long way to go to catch Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic.

“Draper is in that group of contenders who can win Wimbledon. The top band only has two players – Sinner and Alcaraz – with the next band containing Djokovic, along with Draper, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti,” said Overend.

“Draper is absolutely a contender to win Wimbledon. He is definitely a contender to make the final.

“Having said that he will need a little bit of luck because he would have to beat Alcaraz and Sinner back-to-back potentially. He could beat one of them, but can he beat both? Unlikely! Maybe in the future.

“It’s intriguing and it’s possible as I said at the start of the year that Draper could make the Wimbledon final and nothing has happened in the last six months to change my mind.”

Jack Draper and Feliciano Lopez will both be competing at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic, The Hurlingham Club, this week.

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