HSBC CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 20, 2025

Jack Draper

Queens Club

Press Conference

J. DRAPER/B. Nakashima

6-4, 5-7, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: We'll just go straight to questions.

Q. You said a couple of times you're not playing great tennis. How far away from your best are you? And what needs to improve?

JACK DRAPER: I think there is definitely glimpses of stuff. I think I'm serving pretty well. I think I could return a little bit better. I think my movement, obviously it's a big thing in tennis to start playing well is your movement. Definitely the first week on grass is pretty difficult.

You know, in the past maybe I have had a couple of weeks, and last year I played Stuttgart and came here. So I think just the level of what I'm playing could be more consistent. Definitely better. I think it will come. You know, the more I practice, the more I play, I think I'm getting a little bit better each time.

I don't know when it will come together, but still doing well to be in the semis. Day by day, we'll see.

Q. When you talk about the development of your forehand, you often talk about the body positions and how you improved that. Could you elaborate on that and, like, in the past what were you maybe not doing correctly in terms of body positioning and if there are any bad habits and what you changed?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I mean, I think there's still, you see it sometimes, I come off the ball a little bit. And I think, yeah, me and my coach, we worked really hard on trying to stay through the ball longer. You watch the top players in the world, and they are always going forward. I think sometimes I lift off a little bit. I go backwards. That's my sort of bad habits.

But I'm doing it less and less and it's improving all the time. And my forehand has become a really big weapon and a shot I trust.

I just, yeah, I mean, I guess tennis is about body positions. When that ball is coming in fast, especially on a grass court, you have to stay low, have to stay down, because just the slightest movement in your head or in lifting up, then the ball is going to fly.

Yeah, I think just trying to stay through it, stay on the ball, keep my body position in the right place so the ball does what I want it to do.

Q. We heard you on court again play down the significance of the top 4 seeding at Wimbledon, but don't you see it as another step in the right direction, more evidence of progress that you're making?

JACK DRAPER: 100%, 100%. Like I think it's a definite huge step for me. I remember last year going in ranked around 30 or 40. To be inside the top 4 come Wimbledon one year around, that's massive progress, a testament, I think I said on court, to my team, the dedication I have had for tennis, the work I have put in on a daily basis.

You know, I live and breathe the sport, and I'm obsessed with progressing and obsessed with becoming the player that I want to become all the time and achieve the things I want to.

It's another step in the right direction. You know, Wimbledon, regardless of seeding, each match is very difficult, because obviously you've got loads of top players in the draw, a bit like this week. But it gives me confidence knowing I'm in that position and I'm going to be in the right place for that.

Q. To follow that up, what are the best perks you're going to have as a top 4 seed? Better access to dressing room, better showers, better facilities, a courtesy car? What are you going to have, now that you are an elite?

JACK DRAPER: I think the top 16 seeds get, you know, a better changing room. There's some tournaments where it's top 8 seeds, in the Masters 1000s I have had this year.

But no, nothing is different apart from just the fact that of, you know, maybe potentially not seeing Alcaraz or Sinner in the quarters, if I make it there. I think in terms of dressing room, it's top 16 seeds. Yeah, well inside of that now.

Q. Your best round now at Queen's. I wonder, when you were a kid, did you ever come train here? Did you play any tournaments? Did you watch from the stands or did you watch it on telly? What was your kind of awareness or relationship with Queen's as a tournament or a place?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I have always watched it on TV. Never trained here too much. Never spent loads of time. I do have photos on my phone with the trophy when I was, must have been 10.

So maybe I come, I must have watched Andy play here a few times over the years. Not sure what matches it was. I think 2010, 2011 is when I came, but I can't remember it too much.

But obviously, you know, it's always been a tournament that I have watched alongside with Wimbledon. Having Andy win here many years on the trot or whenever he did, just gave it a bit more of a special feeling to me. You know, it was always a big tournament obviously growing up, this one and Wimbledon. Eastbourne a little bit, as well, but mainly Queen's and Wimbledon.

So to be in the semis, that obviously means a lot. I think to play here tomorrow, you know, it's a weekend, I think there's going to be even bigger buzz around the tournament. That will definitely give me more energy to keep on progressing, hopefully make the final.

Q. Congratulations on the win. You mentioned Sinner before. He lost yesterday in Halle. Curious, what do you think about his loss, what the loss of the No. 1 in the world does to a guy like you who is hoping to reach that level?

JACK DRAPER: I mean, not a lot, to be honest. He's barely lost many matches. I don't know the stats. I think my coach showed me on Instagram something that he hasn't lost to anyone apart from Alcaraz since Cincinnati. He's been the most consistent, top player on the tour.

You know, grass is a very different surface. He's obviously just come off the back of a French Open. Playing on a greasy grass court against Bublik, someone I know full well from French Open, that he can come up with some amazing tennis from the serve and off the ground. So if he was locked in, I'm not surprised that that troubled Jannik, because it is his first tournament on grass, and it is difficult to start off playing great tennis.

But I'm, you know, I'm sure come Wimbledon, he's going to be right in the groove. Yeah, he's not super-human. He's going to lose certain matches, especially with the level of players out there, you know.

Q. There has been a lot of talk this year about stalkers and security and that sort of thing. I think you talked about it at Indian Wells. But I just wonder now with your profile being what it is, do you have to give more thought when you're around or about tournaments and that sort of thing? And have you had any kind of weird fans or things like that?

JACK DRAPER: No, I mean, all my experiences with fans has been really good. You know, I have had a few fans that I have seen, you know, coming to a lot of different places, but it's been a really friendly, nonintrusive way.

You know, I think probably more so as a woman you'd be a little bit more on edge with stuff, and that's understandable. I think, as a guy, you're a little bit more like you can protect yourself maybe a little bit more if something did happen.

But I think the protocol has been really good, especially here at Queen's. I have had a lovely guy who has been looking after me, following me around. I think as long as the ATP and the WTA have good protocols around the players, that's good.

I feel as my ranking has gone up and that, like, it has changed for me. Like, I have obviously more people around, but then I have had security probably allocated around the tournaments. But no, yeah, I haven't had much thought about it, to be honest.

Q. Last year over your run at Stuttgart and then here, it was during the kind of period underway when you were looking to play really, really aggressive, and you were serving and volleying a lot. Do you feel like you're still searching for the right balance on grass of how aggressive you should be? Maybe more aggressive than other surfaces? Like, for example, today's match, do you feel like maybe you'd like to be more aggressive, maybe coming in a bit more off the serve?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, definitely. I definitely think that's just a bit of a -- I think it's just such a hard adjustment. I really tried on the clay to play a certain way, to be aggressive in the back court, to be tough from the back of the court, you know, and I spent probably like a month and a half on the clay. This is still because I didn't practice too much before tournament with certain things. I'm sort of going by ear out there a little bit, and I'm trying to become more and more comfortable on the grass.

When you get more comfortable in the movement, more comfortable in what you're trying to do out there, it just starts clicking. You'll start to see more -- I mean, in the first set out there, I definitely was doing a better job of it. I think he started serving really well and all those sort of things, but definitely I want to be more aggressive out there, for sure.

That will come. You know, the more practice I get, the more times I get competing, the more time I get playing on the courts, yeah.

Q. A nonmatch question. Much has been spoken of your friendship with Jannik. Today was released a music piece with Andrea Bocelli and Jannik.

JACK DRAPER: What? (Laughter.) Really?

Q. I guess...

JACK DRAPER: Was he singing?

Q. The spoken word from him. Bocelli is singing. I guess you don't know anything about it, then? You haven't heard it or anything like that?

JACK DRAPER: No. I'm kind of off doing socials and all that sort of stuff for a while now. Was he singing?

Q. He's doing the spoken-word part of it.

JACK DRAPER: Okay.

Q. It's Andrea Bocelli featuring Jannik Sinner?

JACK DRAPER: What's the kind of question?

Q. I guess the question really was did you know much about it? Have you heard it? And would you ever get involved in something like that?

JACK DRAPER: (Smiling.) No. I mean, if he wasn't singin', then it's obviously not like a duet, is it?

No, I think it's nice that tennis players, we're trying to, obviously our life is just so tennis, tennis, tennis. If he's found something that he likes doing on the side of that, then fair play.

I don't think I'll be doing any singin'. But, you know, is the guy who he did it with, he's big in Italy, right? Maybe they did like a collaboration?

Q. He's big globally, 90 million records, et cetera. He's a tenor.

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, well, fair play to him. He's obviously done something that's pretty cool that they both enjoyed. That's nice, yeah. I'm not sure if I'll be doing any collaborations with anyone, but each to their own.