THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 3, 2025

Jack Draper

Press Conference

M. CILIC/J. Draper

6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Jack, disappointing for you. Give us your thoughts.

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, very frustrated. Obviously, really upset. Probably one of the toughest losses I feel. Thought Cilic played an incredible match from start to finish. Didn't let up. Yeah, he deserved the win.

But it hurts a lot.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. There are obviously times when he took the racquet out of your hand a bit. Were there also times when you felt you could have done more?

JACK DRAPER: Of course, of course. I've been really disappointed with the way my game's been on the grass this year, in all honesty. I wasn't feeling too great at Queen's. I don't know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final.

Yeah, highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass, in all honesty. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn't many holes, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference.

So it's just something that I've got to keep in mind, how I'm going to develop my game for the long-term for next year, just to get better as a player. For sure, highlighted a lot of weaknesses in my game, especially against a player the way he was playing today, someone who's as good as him on the grass.

Q. British hope, all this expectation, pressure. Was that a contributing factor, all the extra media...

JACK DRAPER: I mean, it makes me think that Andy's achievement of what he did winning here twice, just unbelievable. Like, it's not the pressure, it's not the whatever. I just didn't play good enough today. I lost to a better player.

I wasn't going out there thinking I was under so much pressure. Like, I don't know, obviously you guys mention it all the time. It's just I wasn't good enough today. That's the main reason. I just was not able to find the level I wanted. I came up short.

Q. We know Wimbledon has replaced some human line judges with an AI system this year. You were challenging a couple of calls. Can you talk us through what those complaints were?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, I don't think it's 100% accurate, in all honesty. A couple of the ones today, it showed, like, a mark on the court. There's no way the chalk would have showed.

I guess it can't be 100% accurate. It's millimeters. It's for both ways. I think it's a shame, tradition that the umpires aren't involved. It's obviously something that makes it easier for the players because we don't have to worry about line calls.

Q. What do you feel you need to improve on to get to that next level? Is it specifically grass or just generally?

JACK DRAPER: I think it's grass, in all honesty. I think the hole in my forehand showed up, for sure. I wasn't able to deal with his pace of ball into my forehand. I was over-spinning a lot. I think a lot of my success this year with my forehand, when I have more time, it's a lot easier for me because I can create the speed and the spin that I want, and the effectiveness of that.

Obviously, movement could have been better. There's many areas of my game which I still really, really need to work on to be the player I want to be. I want to feel like everything in my game is secure. I think that's what you see with the top, top guys. They're so consistent all the time because there's no holes in their game.

I think the last couple weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I've had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I've still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game. In some ways that's exciting, and in some ways that's hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.

Q. It's obviously such a short season, grass. How do you go about changing that for next year?

JACK DRAPER: I don't think I would. I tried my best to adjust to the courts. Maybe I could have played Stuttgart. Then I went fourth round in the French. With the calendar the way it is, I would have had no time to rest. In hindsight, maybe that was the right thing. I back myself that I was going to be able to find the tennis I wanted to play and feel good on the courts and feel great. I just didn't.

So maybe it's something to think about next year. I think that relates more to the lessons I can take this year to take into next year and develop from a week from now, whenever I go back on court, that these are the areas I need to improve on to be bulletproof in all areas on all courts.

I think I can take a lot of lessons from the last couple weeks, for sure. It's showed me a lot.

Q. The grass season is so short. Do you feel like in the future you can get there on grass?

JACK DRAPER: No, I can, yeah, yeah. I can for sure. I think there's a bit of a misconception like, just 'cause I'm a 6'4" lefty, I must be incredible on grass. I obviously won Stuttgart, but I haven't had loads of experience on it.

I don't think I played incredibly well on it before. Obviously I've never gone past the second round here. Some players find it harder than others.

I'm obviously very determined to change that and make it a surface that is going to be great for me. I feel like that's the way with every surface.

When you have the mindset of, even though I don't feel comfortable, I'm going to make it happen, I'm going to make it better for me, it usually works. That's what I did on the clay this year.

It's just hard, yeah, to find that time because we don't have a lot of time to play on grass throughout the year. Like I said, I think what I do have in my power is the lessons that I can learn from this year, and I can try and take that onto the hard, the clay.

Obviously on the grass you have to step up a lot more in the returns and all this sort of stuff. On the clay and on the hard I stand back. I like to have time on the ball, whereas in these courts where I'm playing similar like today, you have to meet the ball on the baseline.

Q. To push again on the AI, there was an incident in the fourth set where you walked towards the chair with your arms outstretched. What did you say to the chair? How certain were you that ball was out? There are still three British players left in this tournament. Will you be cheering them on?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, first question. I mean, I thought the ball may have been wide. There was no chalk. I guess on the Hawk-Eye it showed there was only a margin. There was a mark that suggested it would have been wide. I had an earlier one that was maybe a little bit off that I saw, but I could be wrong. I probably am wrong.

Then to answer the other question, of course, still have British hope. Emma is playing great. I watched her play yesterday. That was amazing. She has a real opportunity. I hope she goes on and does us all proud. She's definitely got the capability to do that.

Cam, Sonay, these guys are going to be flying the flag now. I think they're incredible players, they all want it so badly. I know them all personally. They're all great people, great players. They deserve everything they're going to get. I'm looking forward to definitely watching them play. Maybe I'll try to stay away from it, in all honesty, because it hurts badly. I want them to have amazing success. They deserve that for sure.

Q. Were you surprised by Marin's level. He was in the finals, but that was eight years ago. Some injuries, didn't play a lot of top level. How did you see his level?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, in some ways. Well, actually, yes, I am. I was aware he won Nottingham. I don't put it past him. He's been top 10 for many, many years. I watched him growing up. He's always been someone who's just been the ultimate pro and can play incredible.

I don't play many people on the tour that I feel like they completely bully me and take the racquet out of my hand. I know it's a grass court. I'm not sure what his stats were, but I'm sure he had an amazing match from the winners to unforced errors count.

Like I said, he deserved to win. He's a great player. Someone I have huge respect for, for what he's doing. Obviously come back from injury. He was the much better player than me today.

He deserved to win. Am I surprised by his level? No, he's one of the great players, he's won a Grand Slam. He deserves it.

Q. The first two sets went away in an hour and 20 minutes, so the pace of play was really fast. Do you find that once you lose those two sets that quickly, you sort of struggle to find solutions because you don't have much time to find your rhythm going into the third set?

JACK DRAPER: Yeah, obviously you run out of time. The match is going so quick, the points are going by so quickly, he's serving great, returning great. I feel like every ball is on my feet on the returns. On the serves, you're not really getting a look. A couple of loose points here and there, you're looking at 6-4, 3-Love, 4-1. It's really difficult to deal with.

I'm proud of the way I fought back and tried to find solutions. Obviously it wasn't good enough in the end. But yeah, I can be proud of the way I turned it round. Felt like I kind of ran out of time a little bit. I was starting to play some good stuff.

But yeah, obviously at this level on the grass, the match can good very quickly if you're not quite finding what you need to find.

Q. In your losses to Cilic and Bublik, both players were playing 10-out-of-10 tennis. Do you feel like there's still questions for you to solve in terms of finding a way to disrupt players who are redlining in the moment? In this match today, were you thinking of the Bublik match in terms of the level?

JACK DRAPER: Yes, definitely. Both of them played outstanding level. I got to expect that now. Obviously, I've got a bit of a target on my back with my ranking. He's obviously someone who wants to get back to where he used to be.

I think, yeah, there's definitely areas of my game where I need to, is he playing so well because I'm letting him play that way? Same with Bublik. Are they playing that well because I'm dropping the ball short, I'm not doing enough with the ball? I know they still have to execute. I think both of them were having amazing days. But that's what good players do, they punish you.

So yeah, I mean, I think in some ways it's a good thing. It highlighted a lot of areas of my game which I need to continue to improve on if I want to be consistently a top player and going deep in these slams because everyone is a great player. You're going to come unstuck if you're in the good enough.

Thank you, guys.