Jack Draper was dealt a brutal snub by his own mother when she chose not to answer his call, just hours after he won his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells. The 23-year-old climbed into the top 10 of the ATP rankings following his success in California after breezing past Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2. But apparently not even the Briton’s achievement was enough to get the attention of his mother, who reportedly declined his phone call in the aftermath of his maiden success.
According to BBC News, his mother Nicky was in the middle of a live radio interview with their local station BBC Radio Surrey when her son called her from the United States. However, the outlet reports that his mother chose to ‘decline a call from her son’ even after his incredible achievement. Asked if her son had called her, she said: “He always calls me and we have a chat. In fact (laughs), I’ve just declined his call now! I was a bit distracted and I saw he was calling me, I’ve just declined him.
She added: “I guess he’s going to bed! I would’ve thought he’s had a lot of celebrating. I hope so. I hope he and his team have let their hair down a bit.”
Despite that, there was no doubt Ms Draper was delighted with Jack’s success and she praised his tireless efforts on and off the court to improve his level.
“He’s worked so hard for this. He’s always been a really good player,” Ms Draper said to BBC Radio Surrey. “But that doesn’t get you too far. You’ve got to really put in the work and do it day in, day out, and just work on all the different aspects that you need in tennis.
“Speed, fitness, agility, the mental side… all the attributes you need to succeed in tennis. Scheduling tournaments one after one and he’s doing Miami now.”
“It wasn’t straightforward, but in terms of other matches where I’ve been watching for four hours and literally [been] on a rollercoaster all night wondering what’s going to happen, it was fairly straightforward.”
Draper might’ve been fancied to beat Rune in the final but he had his work cut out to get there. The British No. 1 faced Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals and beat the Spaniard 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 to pull off a superb victory in the Californian hills.
And his straight-set win over Rune in Sunday’s final means he has moved up to a career-high seventh in the world rankings. He still has some way to go before matching Andy Murray’s feat of spending 41 weeks at the summit, but there is growing support for the Sutton-born star.