Jack Draper now sees Andy Murray’s achievement of winning two Wimbledon titles as “unbelievable” after his shock second round exit. And the British No.1 said he will need to improve on grass to become a contender at his home Grand Slam.
The world No.4 has yet to reach the third round in SW19 after losing 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 to 2017 finalist Marin Cilic. He is the 19th male seed to crash out in the Wimbledon of big upsets.
And Draper, 23, said: “Very frustrated. Obviously, really upset. Probably one of the toughest losses I feel. I thought Cilic played an incredible match from start to finish. Didn’t let up. He deserved the win. But it hurts a lot. It makes me think that Andy’s achievement of what he did winning here twice, just unbelievable. It’s not the pressure. I just didn’t play good enough today. I lost to a better player.
“I wasn’t going out there thinking I was under so much pressure. It’s just I wasn’t good enough today. That’s the main reason. I just was not able to find the level I wanted. I came up short.”
Draper lost in the semi-finals at Queen’s Club where he was suffering from tonsillitis and admitted: “It highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass, in all honesty. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn’t many holes, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference.
“I think the last couple weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I’ve had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I’ve still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game. In some ways that’s exciting, and in some ways that’s hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.
“I think there’s a bit of a misconception like, just ’cause I’m a 6’4” lefty, I must be incredible on grass. I obviously won Stuttgart, but I haven’t had loads of experience on it.
“I don’t think I played incredibly well on it before. Obviously I’ve never gone past the second round here. Some players find it harder than others. I’m obviously very determined to change that and make it a surface that is going to be great for me. I feel like that’s the way with every surface.”
Wimbledon has replaced line judges with Electronic Line Calling this year but Draper said: “II don’t think it’s 100% accurate, in all honesty. A couple of the ones today, it showed, a mark on the court. There’s no way the chalk would have showed.
“I guess it can’t be 100% accurate. It’s millimeters. It’s for both ways. I think it’s a shame, tradition that the umpires aren’t involved. It’s obviously something that makes it easier for the players because we don’t have to worry about line calls.”
Draper lost to world No.62 Alexander Bublik in the French Open fourth round and now has gone out to the world No.80.
“Both of them played at an outstanding level, ” he said. “I got to expect that now. Obviously, I’ve got a bit of a target on my back with my ranking.”
Cilic, 36, is playing his first Wimbledon since 2021 after undergoing two knee operations.
“My emotions are just incredible,” said the 2014 US Open champion. Where I was two years ago, I can’t even describe. It has been a long journey but I never lost any doubt.”
After starting with 23 British singles players, the last three left are in action today – Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal and Cam Norrie.
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