'I Still Drive Second-Hand Polo': Jack Draper Stays Humble Despite Millions Earned

Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 16:10

byErik Virostko

Jack Draper might be an ambitious and talented tennis player, but he also wants to stay very humble and down to earth.

Draper is currently the highest-ranked British player on the ATP Tour and the most likely successor of Andy Murray, who retired from professional tennis only in 2024.

Early in his tennis career, Draper struggled a lot with injuries, which is why his breakthrough came a bit later than expected. However, once he broke through, it was clear that he was an incredibly talented player.

Unfortunately, the start of his 2025 season was derailed, as he was forced to withdraw from the 2025 United Cup after also canceling his pre-season training with Carlos Alcaraz.

Still, he found time to sit down with The Telegraph before the start of the new season to give his fans a little insight into his tennis career and who he is outside of the tennis courts.

At the end of the 2023 season, Draper won over $500,000 in only three days at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, and in 2024, he was the 15th highest-earning player on the ATP Tour, collecting a total of $2,745,025 in prize money.

In his tennis career, Draper has already earned a total of $4,567,996, placing 251st on the all-time list. However, despite being essentially a millionaire, he remains humble, and in the interview with The Telegraph, he revealed that he still drives a second-hand Volkswagen Polo.

"I still drive a second-hand Polo. I'm not materialistic. I don't find who I am or what I do very impressive. If I go out or if I meet other people, I'm never talking about my tennis. I don't think of what I do as exceptional because I'm around it the whole time."

In the same interview, Draper also talked about himself as a tennis player. In 2024, he started working with coach Wayne Ferreira, who he split with relatively quickly.

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Still, Ferreira helped him improve, as he made the British player realize that he must be more aggressive, even if the 53-year-old wanted him to be too aggressive, in Draper's opinion.

"Wayne wanted me to try and be braver, play first-strike tennis sort of thing. And I suppose I needed that, but at the same time, I needed to understand that that's not the player I am as well. I'm not a John Isner."

"One of my main attributes as a player is my ability to move well for my size, to get that one more ball back on court, because that's how I won matches when I was younger, when I was small. I had to see for myself that it wasn't going to be something that was radical and a big change."

"It was just maybe five or 10 per cent, coming up the court a bit more, or stepping in on a few more returns, or serve-and-volleying a few more times, and just trying to create more of a presence around my game."

After withdrawing from the 2025 United Cup, Draper's season will most likely start at the Australian Open. He will hope to be ready for that event, as he will be finally among the highest-seeded players.