Jack Draper feels that Emma Raducanu is capable of shouldering British hopes at Wimbledon after his own tournament went up in smoke. Going into the Championships, Draper was seen as the country’s leading contender for a deep run but he came unstuck in the second round for the third time in his young career.
World No.83 Marin Cilic was the man to scalp the fourth seed with a big-hitting performance on Centre Court. It has now been left to Raducanu, Cameron Norrie and Sonay Kartal who, out of the 23 Brits to enter the two main draws, are the last players standing in the third round.
Draper said in his post-match press conference: “Of course [we] still have British hope. Emma is playing great. I watched her play yesterday. That was amazing.”
Raducanu has lit up the All England Club so far this year with comfortable wins over Mimi Xu in the first round and 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second. But she is about to encounter a huge step up in class, with top seed Aryna Sabalenkaup next.
But Draper is not discounting Raducanu against the Belarusian. He said: “She has a real opportunity. I hope she goes on and does us all proud. She’s definitely got the capability to do that.”
To be the first to receive the latest Wimbledon news, join our WhatsApp community or Wimbledon newsletter
On Britain’s other two contenders, Draper added: “Cam, Sonay, these guys are going to be flying the flag now. I think they’re incredible players, they all want it so badly. I know them all personally. They’re all great people, great players. They deserve everything they’re going to get. I’m looking forward to watching them play.”
The 22-year-old did concede that he may not be able to cheer them on from close quarters, such is his devastation over spurning his own shot at SW19 glory.
“Maybe I’ll try to stay away from it, in all honesty, because it hurts badly,” he admitted. “I want them to have amazing success. They deserve that for sure.”
Hype gathered around Draper when he gave Sebastian Baez a heavy beating in the first round and the Argentine retired in the third set. But 2014 US Open champion Cilic, 36, drew on all his experience to secure a major Wimbledon upset on Thursday.
The Croatian sent 16 aces down to Draper’s end of the court and unleashed countless forehand winners to set up a third-round meeting with Jaume Munar.