Jack Draper's coach James Trotman reflects on 'phenomenal' start to year on Challenger Tour and improvements

Streaking has been a theme so far in 2022.

Rafael Nadal compiled one of the best unbeaten starts to a men’s season in the Open era, going 20-0 before losing to Taylor Fritz in the Indian Wells final. Iga Swiatek tore through the women’s game with a 17-match winning streak earning her three successive WTA 1000 titles and launching her to world No.1 And then there’s Jack Draper, who has also grabbed himself a piece of history by becoming the first player to win four ATP Challenger events in the first quarter of a season.

Draper, 20, introduced himself to the mainstream last summer when he took a set off Novak Djokovic in the opening match of Wimbledon. A foot injury stymied his post-Wimbledon development somewhat, but this year he has been soaring, a 22-2 record on the second-tier Challenger Tour, including a 15-match winning run, pushing him to a career-high No.124 in the ATP rankings. He’s also up to third in the Race To Milan standings, behind only top-15 pair Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the best 21-and-under players of the season so far.

“It’s exceeded expectations for sure,” Draper’s coach James Trotman tells Eurosport.

“After he won his first Challenger at the start of the year we were having a conversation and spoke about how there’s one thing that’s certain with tennis: there’s always a winner and a loser. You can’t hide from that. I said ‘look if you have three weeks this year when you don’t lose you have had a really good year in my view'. He’s obviously gone four weeks already and we’re only in March.

“It’s a phenomenal effort and above our expectations at the start of the year.”

Draper reeled off three titles in Forli, Italy before heading to the Miami Open as a wild card. It was in Miami last year that Draper made his ATP main-draw debut, going toe-to-toe with Mikhail Kukushkin in a competitive 81-minute first set before retiring with a heat-related illness. While it was not the outcome Draper desired, he managed to showcase some of his talent by hitting 17 winners in hot and humid conditions which tour veteran Kukushkin described as “really tough” and some of the slowest he had played in.

A year on and Draper notched his third-tour level win in Miami over former world No.6 Gilles Simon in similar conditions. He lost his next match to fellow Brit Cameron Norrie, who touted Draper as a potential future top-10 player, but was quickly back to winning ways on his return to the Challenger Tour in France, beating former top-50 duo Illya Marchenko and Robin Haase en route to a fourth trophy of the year.

It’s been a dream start to the season for Draper, who is now managing to build some momentum after injuries had disrupted his progress previously.

“Pre-season was really important for him,” says Trotman. “It gave him a sustained chunk of time to work on his body and work on his on-court movement and his ability to sustain high levels.

“He’s done a lot of strength training and on-court conditioning and speed and agility work. Whenever we get the opportunity we are trying to plan his schedule well to get training blocks in because he’s not the finished article, which is exciting because there’s so much room for development with his physicality and on-court tennis game. The strength side of things was definitely a big focus, especially in the lower body to get the legs stronger.

“All tennis players the goal is to keep improving and developing. Jack had quite a bad injury history over the last couple of years so one of the key goals when we started working together was to stay fit and healthy and gain momentum on the court. Touch wood that has been better from the end of last year to the start of this year.”

Draper has been viewed as one of the most promising young British talents for several years. He made the Wimbledon boys' final in 2018 and last year beat both Sinner and Alexander Bublik at Queen’s Club. He looked comfortable opening on Centre Court against Djokovic, firing 11 winners and saving seven break points in an impressive first set. Trotman says it was good for Draper last summer to get “validation that you can play with the best in the world, even if you are not there in that moment in time”, while Djokovic said he thought his opponent had a “good base” to work from.

Draper’s game is built around a left-handed serve, which is a big weapon, and solid, powerful groundstrokes on both sides. He can hit the ball flat when needed and has already shown that he can handle pressure moments. But movement still appears an area for improvement and that in turn could help his defensive play.

“Physically he’s not the finished article for sure,” says Trotman.

“When we started working together my goal was to try and give Jack the tools to be a top 100 player by the end of the year. I want him to have the level to play on tour week in, week out and his physicality, mentality and tennis game to be able to stand up to those pressures and compete with the best players week in, week out. That’s still the goal.

“It’s been a fantastic start but we have work to do and there’s lots of work to do.”

Draper will now switch his focus to the clay season. He is set to continue on the Challenger Tour and may also try to play the ATP 1000 Madrid Open, which starts on April 26. He will then get his first taste of the French Open before attentions turn to grass in the lead-up to Wimbledon, where he may gain direct entry if his ranking has improved even further.

Draper is currently the fourth-highest ranked British man, behind Norrie (10), Dan Evans (26) and Andy Murray (84). He practises with the trio when they are at the National Tennis Centre and said recently that they are “all very supportive of us younger players”.

So what about Norrie’s prediction that Draper could one day join him as a top-10 player?

“We don’t talk much about rankings,” says Trotman.

“It’s just trying to put the best version of himself out on the court and give him the most complete game we can give him that makes him very difficult to beat. He’s an incredible competitor and you put him on court he will compete to win every time.

“I am a big believer that you make your goals something that is achievable and the process will help the ranking. Maybe that will change after this year but at the moment it’s about keeping building and making him a better tennis player and if he ends up in the top 10 or better, or wherever he gets to, and achieves his maximum, that’s the goal.”

Right now the ceiling looks high for Draper.