It’s certainly not the ideal way to prepare for any second week at a Major, let alone one that will begin with a match against Carlos Alcaraz, but Jack Draper will take it. In coming back yet again from being two sets to one down to win against an opponent at the Australian Open, for the third time in five days, the young Briton provided further evidence – perhaps even conclusive evidence – that the injury problems that have blighted his career so far, including in the run-up to this year’s first Major, might finally be over.
Jack Draper makes it a hat-trick of Australian Open comebacks
At Last Draper Gets To Play Alcaraz
Ironically, after a career best 2024, Draper had been due to train with Alcaraz in Spain during the brief tennis off-season, but as has so often been the case throughout his still nascent career, injury (on this occasion a hip problem) prevented him from making the most of that unique experience. It also meant that he came into this year’s Australian Open without any match practice at all, after being unable to compete in the United Cup or any other warm-up event before Melbourne.
However, as many great sportspeople and teams have learned over the years, preparation can be over-rated. The Danish men’s football team famously won the 1992 European Championships after literally being summoned from their summer holidays when Yugoslavia, who had qualified ahead of them, were prevented from playing in the tournament when the country ceased to exist and its constituent parts began the Balkan wars of the early 1990s. Draper is unlikely to match that epic triumph in Melbourne, but his experience in Australia so far is a reminder that if you don’t have time to think, you also don’t have time to overthink.
First Up – Mariano Navone
Draper’s first great comeback win in Australia came on the second day of the tournament, which was also the second day of the prolonged three-day first round in Melbourne, when he faced Argentina’s Mariano Navone. Given the disruption to his preparations, it was perhaps not altogether surprising that he should have lost the first set against the clay-court specialist. However, it was undoubtedly a shock when, having levelled the match at one set all, he promptly lost the third set and eventually had to scrap his way to a five-set win.
Second Up – Thanasi Kokkinakis
That first match against Navone established the template for Draper’s first week in Melbourne, because in his second-round match against Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis he also lost the first set. Unlike Navone, Kokkinakis’s best surface is hardcourt and playing at home in front of the ultra-patriotic (and occasionally ultra-inebriated) Australian fans, he looked as if he could make the third round in the Singles competition at his home Slam for the first time ever, especially when he took the third set and then served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set.
Once again, however, Draper snatched a brilliant victory from what seemed to be the maw of certain defeat, breaking Kokkinakis’s serve twice to win the fourth set 7-5 and then eventually wearing him down in the fifth set to win that 6-3 and with it the match.
Third Up – Aleksandar Vukic
Draper would surely have gone into his third-round match against another Australian, Aleksandar Vukic (the conqueror of Sebastian Korda in the second round), determined to do everything possible to avoid another long and draining five-setter, especially against another Aussie underdog being cheered to the rafters by the Melbourne crowd. Initially, that plan (or hope) seemed to be working out, as he took the first set against Vukic 6-4 to snap his two-match streak of losing the first set to a lower-ranked player.
However, all the demons, or more precisely all the fatigue that was almost certainly the consequence of not having been able to play a warm-up match before the Australian Open, returned in the second set against Vukic, as Draper lost the first four games in succession before eventually losing the set 6-2.
Having lost the third set in both his previous matches in Melbourne, it was perhaps not so surprising that Draper then lost the third set against Vukic 7-5. Equally, given his comebacks against both Navone and Kokkinakis, it was not completely shocking that he came roaring back into the match – almost literally, as he uncharacteristically smashed his racket to pieces at the end of the third set, which seemed to be the release of pent-up frustration that he needed – and eventually won his third five-set match of the week 6-4, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (10-8).
In one sense, Draper was lucky in that he was playing an opponent in Vukic who had also gone the full five-set distance in his first two matches in Melbourne. But there was absolutely no luck involved, only sheer nerve, as he first won a regular tie-break to win the fourth set and then won a match tie-break to seal victory.
Draper Is Showing Immense Physical Resilience
Ever since he announced himself to the tennis world at Wimbledon in 2021 by taking the first set in his first-round match against Novak Djokovic before eventually losing in four sets, Draper has been earmarked as Britain’s best hope of finding a true successor to Andy Murray: a male player who could not only contend for Majors but possibly even win them. And that impression was strongly reinforced at the US Open last year, when he went all the way to the semi-final before losing to eventual champion Jannik Sinner.
The big doubt about Draper has always been his physical resilience. He initially failed to build on that superb Centre Court performance against Djokovic because he was so beset by physical problems. And even in the wake of his run to the semis in New York last year, he was far from his best the following week in the Davis Cup finals qualifying tournament, which Britain ultimately crashed out of, although in that case the jet lag and emotional hangover that followed his run in the Big Apple must also be taken into account.
This week in Melbourne may just have proven to everyone, including Draper himself, that he is finally physically fit enough to go all the way at a Major. That may not happen in Melbourne, especially as he will be playing a comparatively fresh and rested Alcaraz in the next round, but it does bode well both for Wimbledon and his return to New York later in the year.
Don’t Forget “Jake”
Amidst all the justified attenion in Jack, tennis fans and especially British tennis fans should not forget “Jake”, as Scotland’s Jacob Fearnley was apparently known throughout his time in US college tennis. This week the young Scot has shown that he is capable of following Draper to the top of the men’s game and perhaps even emulating his great compatriot, Andy Murray.
Fearnley may ultimately have lost in straight sets in his third-round match against Alexander Zverev, but he was always competitive in it, to the extent that he broke Zverev’s gigantic serve twice. Most players cannot break Zverev’s serve even once during a match, so the fact that Fearnley managed it twice speaks volumes for his ability, especially on return of serve.
The prospect of Jack and “Jake” providing a twin-pronged attack on the Majors in the future is not only good for British tennis in general but for the players themselves. Rather than the spotlight just being on one player, as it was throughout most of Andy Murray’s career, there is every chance that it will be divided between these two brilliant young prospects.
Britain has rarely, if ever, had two such promising young male players at the same time. You would have to go back to the 1990s, when Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski were in their pomp, to find another pair of Brits who both looked so impressive. However, both Henman and Rusedski were relatively late bloomers, in stark contrast with the excellence that both Draper and Fearnley are already demonstrating in their early twenties.
Indeed, one may even have to go back nearly a century, to Fred Perry and Henry “Bunny” Austin, to find the previous period when Britain had two such tantalising young male tennis players. Draper and Fearnley obviously have a long way to go match the remarkable achievements of Perry and Austin, which included winning a hat-trick of Davis Cups between 1933 and 1935. However, the evidence of the last week in Melbourne is that they both have at least a chance of doing so.
Main photo credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images
