“I’m really serious about becoming a top, top player,” said the British No.2. “That’s why we’ve hired Wayne Ferreira into the team, a top level coach. A few weeks ago, it was more of a trial, but we gel really well as a team. I think he’s an amazing coach and he’s going to give me… He’s going to bring a lot to the team and give me a lot of different things.
“And the main thing for me right now is, you know, it’s tough. I’ve kind of got to 35 in the world through playing a certain way. And I know that if I want to be a top, top player, you know, certain things are going to have to change with my tennis and my mentality. So I’m kind of just going through that transition period at the moment. And it’s not easy because I’m having to do certain things in my game, which are uncomfortable because I’ve never done them before.
“So you know I’m really happy with where I’m at with my tennis and everything. My practices have been great. You know I’m really locked in on trying to do everything right on and off the court and if I keep on doing that and keep on doing all I need to do, day in day out, then I know I’m going to get there. But it’s you know I’m going through a bit of a sort of transitional phase I suppose.”
Draper, who has been practising here with Andy Murray, will play a qualifier in his first round match on Sunday. The winner will likely face No.3 Alcaraz who has declared himself fit after pulling out of the Rome Masters with an arm injury.
“I’m not thinking about that one just yet,” Draper said. “I’m thinking about that first match, how I can prepare best as possible to go out and play a really good first round, mentally, physically, with my tennis, and then we can think about that afterwards. Obviously yeah he’s one of the one of the best players in the world and it would it would be a tough, tough match for me but you know I’m thinking about that first one first really.”
Draper was forced to retire from his French Open debut last year with a shoulder injury which forced him out of Wimbledon.
“I was in a pretty dark place,” he recalled. “I got injured the day before the tournament, pretty much, with my arm. My arm was done and I had to serve underarm knowing the next day you know it was a really tough moment and probably likely that I was going to miss the grass.
“I’ve come a long way since then to be honest,with my body and everything you know… touch wood, I’ve been injury-free since I had that arm injury since August last year. And it was a real tough moment for me but after that happened I missed the grass and I had to drop back down to 120 in the world or whatever I was and now I’m a career high this week so a lot has happened in a year but I’m proud of the progress I’ve made.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk