THe Queen’s Club Championships on Saturday was filled with a very hopeful home crowd. The fans cheered as loud as they could for their latest shining star, Jack Draper. To their disappointment, Draper’s journey in securing his first Queen’s Club title was cut short as he faltered in the semifinals. Czech player Jiri Lehecka spoiled the evening for the crowd as he took out the home favorite in three tight sets. The score read 6-4 4-6 7-5.
Draper loses his cool and smashes his racquet
The reaction from Draper after giving a break advantage to his opponent didn’t go well with most tennis viewers. In the final stages of the match, after committing an error on the court, the Brit couldn’t hold back his emotions as he slammed his racquet in the advertising board. It damaged both the board and the equipment and fans felt it was an unnecessary lashing out.
When asked about his violent reaction in the post-match press conference, Draper had this to say. “When you try your best and things don’t go your way, it’s easy to spill over. That’s what happened out there. Like I said, I don’t want to behave like that, in all honesty, but that’s just the way I sort of am as a competitor. Sometimes I just play on a bit of a tightrope. I don’t want to be behaving like that.”
The irony of this Jack Draper smash is that it's against the Dunlop sign… Draper plays with a Dunlop racket. 👀
GB media would have annihilated Djokovic if he did this, but for Draper they said it was ok because he had tonsillitis and was frustrated. 👀pic.twitter.com/mdQ6u3x5Hk
— Pavvy G (@pavyg) June 21, 2025
The Brit did admit that he does play a very competitive game. Reactions of the sort viewers saw do come out from time to time. However, in the same breath he also mentioned that he would not want to behave like this and would like to be calmer in such situations. The Brit will have to put this loss behind him and look forward to a fresh opportunity at Wimbledon. The cheers will be big as the locals want to see a home champion after Andy Murray won it 9 years ago.
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
