Jack Draper claimed the biggest title of his career in Indian Wells last month, but he still hasn’t been able to give his new hardware pride of place at home. The British No. 1 got a shock when he lifted his first Masters 1000 trophy in the Californian desert.
The famous star trophy is one of the heaviest in tennis, and he learned that the hard way, almost “tearing his shoulder off”. As he turns his attention to the clay season, Draper has yet to be reunited with his cup after putting in an impressive shift in Indian Wells.
“I didn’t bring it back myself, think I’m getting it shipped,” the world No. 7 said on Sunday – three weeks after he beat Holger Rune to be crowned the Indian Wells champion.
“So it will probably go to the home address because I mean, I didn’t realise how it was like 35 kilograms.”
Draper’s math may be slightly off – the trophy reportedly weighs around 38 pounds or 17 kilograms – but it was still heavy enough that he was warned not to lift his hardware in celebration.
He added: “I nearly tore my shoulder off, lifting it up. Well, [I was told], ‘Don’t lift it up’, but, I mean, I just won a title, and a really big one as well, so I had to hold that thing up.”
Draper’s Indian Wells victory won’t have come as much of a surprise to those who have followed his rise up the rankings. But it was the manner in which he lifted the title – beating four top-15 players in a row – that was a mark of his talent and hard work.
It’s given him “big, big belief, big confidence.” Although he lost his opening match to eventual champion Jakub Mensik in Miami the following week, Draper is keen to carry that momentum into the clay season and has been hard at work since leaving the States.
“I had a few days off and then I went straight into training at the National Tennis Centre. We’ve been practising on the clay. I was lucky to have Jacob [Fearnley, fellow British player] around,” the Indian Wells champion explained.
“I was saying to my coach it’s amazing to have him, obviously someone who I was very close with growing up, he went his separate way to uni, but he’s coming back now and he’s not got many weaknesses as a player and he’s got a great work ethic. And he’s sort of on that journey, like how I was and still am, but he was excellent to practice with.
“I’m feeling like I’m coming here really, really well prepped, and [it was] just a good time to get a bit of physical work in and all that sort of stuff. It was obviously a long, long few weeks even though Miami didn’t quite go to plan.”
Draper is the No. 5 seed in Monte Carlo this week and has a bye into the second round, where he faces either Marcos Giron or Denis Shapovalov. The Brit has only won one match at this tournament in 2023 and, last year, he had a tough clay season, losing his share of tight three-setters.
While the surface is less familiar to him, the newest member of the world’s top 10 is eager to prove himself on the dirt this year.
“It’s not my first surface, but it’s the surface that I’ve always throughout the juniors and stuff, I’ve felt like I can play really well on,” he said.
“Last year, I feel like I am a different player this year, but I feel like I wasn’t able to get off my feet last year because I lost three 7-6s in the thirds to great quality opponents and if I had come through one of those, who knows what would have happened.
“So I’m still yet to feel like I’ve won matches and be really confident on the surface, but I definitely feel like if I can have some really good success over the next month or so, that will set me up even more for what’s to come for the rest of the season.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk