Jack Draper was one of the most improved players on the ATP Tour in 2024, and the Briton outlined the key change he made to become more successful this season.
Although 22-year-old Draper's talent had been known for some time, he did not consistently show it until the second half of 2024, when the Briton made a statement to the rest of the tennis world.
Draper made an excellent start to this year by finishing as the runner-up to Jiri Lehecka at the Adelaide International, but could not sustain that level in the opening half of 2024, especially on clay, his least favored surface.
However, that all changed after the French Open. Draper secured his maiden ATP Tour title on grass at the Stuttgart Open after a superb victory in the final against 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini.
He followed that with a triumph against Carlos Alcaraz at the Cinch Championships on home soil in London, showing how formidable his game can be when everything clicks simultaneously.
During the North American hard court season, Draper reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open without dropping a set before losing against the world No. 1 and eventual champion at Flushing Meadows, Jannik Sinner.
While that was a great achievement, Draper's best moment came in his penultimate tournament of 2024. He won a maiden ATP 500 title at the Vienna Open, seeing off former Australian Open and US Open semifinalist Karen Khachanov in the final.
That outstanding second half of 2024 led to Draper's nomination for the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year. Some expected the Briton to win, but the award went to the huge-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard instead.
Draper undoubtedly planned to hit the ground running during the off-season. Unfortunately, the young star was forced to cancel a planned training camp with Carlos Alcaraz due to an injury.
When Draper returns, he will try to keep showing the improved mentality that helped him achieve so much success in 2024. In an interview with The Guardian, the Vienna Open champion spoke about what changed for him.
Draper admitted that he did not initially put in the hard yards needed to succeed as a professional tennis player, and changing that was what he needed to start reaching his potential.
"When I was younger, I didn’t really have much of a working mentality. When you’re young, you step into the world of tennis and you don’t really know what it’s all about. It’s a brutal change, because you realise that if you want to be good, you have to mature and be an adult when you’re 20 years old."
"I wasn’t quite ready for that; I didn’t want to put in hard work. I didn’t want to sacrifice. I didn’t want to be professional. I didn’t want to do all the things it takes. That’s when the penny dropped that I really needed to change."
"I’m very, very proud of the way I took it upon myself to really be different and I’ve got a lot of rewards from those decisions. A lot of good things have come from just trying to really take it upon myself to be better and grow, be a better person, be more independent and just more of a man.”
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