THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 1, 2025

Jack Pinnington

Press Conference

J. PINNINGTON JONES/T. Etcheverry

7-6, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Jack, great win. You must be feeling pretty good right now.

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: Yeah, I feel great. Tired, but yeah, so pumped with the win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. After seeing so many players with similar rankings in their career win yesterday under the British flag, was that inspiration for you to go out there today?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: Yeah, 100%. I think I saw yesterday it was the most Brits ever through in one day or something like that. Seeing all my fellow countrymen and women doing so well, pretty special.

It definitely inspired me knowing if they can do it, why can't I? I think that's the best way to do it, everyone pushing each other.

Yeah, just so pumped to get the win. Happy to see the Brits doing well. Yeah, I want to see them doing as well as possible.

Q. Some really tight moments out there. You came out on top of pretty much all of them. Is that what you're most proud of?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I think just how, sort of, I managed the match. My first time ever playing best-of-five sets. Obviously a lot of tension, nerves before the match. Sort of getting in that tiebreak, saving some set points in the first, sort of all those tight moments coming through, and committing to what me and my coach discussed before, which was being brave and taking it to him at times. I feel I did that really well. Yeah, I felt like that's what I'm most proud of.

Especially the third set, just sort of accepting the ebbs and flows of the match. It's tough to be concentrated the whole time out there. Even the greats, sometimes I'm assuming struggle with that sort of stuff. Just to accept that I lost a bit of concentration at the start of the third and didn't let that rattle me too much. Just keep plugging away, taking care of my service games, and hoping that I'll get a look, and accepting that if I don't, it's fine, you would have signed for this at the start of the match.

Q. You decided to leave college and turn professional. A win like this is exactly why you made that decision?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: Yeah. Obviously it quite nervous. It's a big decision in my life to sort of leave college early and forego my degree and play professional tennis full-time. It's obviously now a job.

To start your career with your best-ever win on the biggest stage you dreamt of as a child, it's sort of a perfect storybook start for me, yeah. So really, really excited.

Q. Take us back to the car journeys at sunrise, Jack Draper. What time did you want to go? What was he driving? What was on the music?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I was probably practicing maybe 10, 11-ish, I'd say. We're driving in sort of through (indiscernible) where he picks me up. The traffic is just a nightmare, if you go any later with the school run, all of that stuff. So he would say, Right, I'm going to be there at 6:30. You're either there or you're not. I'd be every time half asleep.

It would take 20 minutes because no one else is awake. We'd be there at 7, maybe 7:10 latest. Then from no breakfast at 7. You have to wait till 8. It's just us sitting there at the NTC, and in the car I'd usually get aux. Unless he was excited to show me a new song he'd found, I'd usually get aux. Yeah, it would be UK rap or depending on the mood, something like that. Something more chill. If it's end of the week, probably more chill. Beginning of the week, more UK rap-based.

Jack has been great to me. He's always looking out for me. I just saw him after the match. He came up, congratulated me. He sent me a text just before I went on saying, You're ready for this, go and embrace it, stuff like that. It just means a lot he's there supporting me. He's one of my best friends. It's obviously exciting. Maybe one day I can get up maybe not where he is, but where we are playing the same tournaments.

Q. What was the car? Why didn't you drive?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I was about 15, 16. I didn't have a license. It's the same car he has now, like this little Polo. He treats it awfully. He's like, I don't need a nice car in London, I'm going to ding it anyway.

It's the same car he got when he first passed. He loves it. Yeah, he has some boxing gloves in the wing mirror. Yeah, he loves it. Same car, little Polo. Runs it round.

Q. Cam played a role in you going to uni. Can you talk about that?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I practiced with Cam a decent amount. Whenever he was around the NTC, he was always great to me. Great with all the younger guys basically, from what I see.

I was doing pretty well it was my last year of juniors when I got to know him properly. We practiced a bit on the clay before he had a good clay season. He texted me, Hey, are you considering college? We'd text. He would say, Good job. If I won a match in a 15K, he'd somehow know, ping me a message.

Once I decided I wanted to go to the college route, I did a week training with him at TCU before I decided whether I wanted to go or not. Yeah, he's just been really great to me. Same with Jacob. Obviously I was on the team with him for two years. He's been amazing. He's one of my best mates. I had a barbecue with him Saturday at his house.

Yeah, it's been cool seeing how supportive they are of me and how they want me to do as best I can. They're always there if I need advice or anything like that.

I think that's pretty special to have those guys, especially Jack, Cam, and Jake just sort of being there for me and knowing that I can lean on them if I need anything and if I have any questions. This is all new for me. So any sort of extra tips or experience is huge.

Q. Do you play at Andy Murray club?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I'm not a good golfer by any accounts. About 16 right now. I've been playing about a year. I'm obsessed. I'm an obsessed golfer. I'll play as much golf as possible. Just from being in college, it would be evenings at the range or playing with some of the guys on the TCU golf team. For me it's just a good distraction, off the phone for a couple hours, sort of chilling, listening to music with some friends. Driving around in a cart in America makes it quite easy on the legs. I played every week leading up to this in all of the tournaments I played. All the challengers, I found on my day off, I tried to go and play. My goal is to be single figures. Once I get there, I can not play as much and still have some level, but if I'm not practicing right now, my level, I need some reps, otherwise the golf game deteriorates pretty quickly.

Q. When did you last play?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I played Friday at Andy's course, which was awesome. I don't know. I'll probably play at the end of the week, whenever I'm done here I'll definitely go round with some friends or go around and have some fun.

Q. This was your third top-hundred opponent you faced. How has your level compared to the top hundred players? How did that compare to what you thought it would be?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: It's obviously a big jump up from what I'm used to. At the same time, I've sort of seen how the British top 100 players train, how they play. I know their level just from hitting with them a lot. You sort of know what to expect to a degree. Obviously a grass court for me, I think, equalizes quite a lot of the stuff. Especially, I'm very comfortable on the grass. I quite enjoy it. It's probably my best surface. I feel like if people don't like the grass, I feel their level drops, mine goes up a little bit, and then suddenly it's in that 50/50 zone.

I would say the top 100 guys are so disciplined from whenever I played the futures or challenger level. Sometimes you get some loose games, some tap-outs. I feel like the guys here are dialed in, doing everything right with the physios, taking care of their bodies, 100% locked in. I would say that's the biggest thing. They concentrate a little bit longer. They're slightly better tennis players, but even the mental side of the game, that's the biggest difference, I would say, from the challenger level. You have guys there that can still play unbelievable tennis at times. It's just can you do it consistently, I think.

Q. You mentioned you were a bit more emotional when you were younger. Was that a natural kind of progression when it changed or did you have to work on it?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: I'd love to say it's changed fully. I definitely still have those tendencies at times to not mentally be as good as I can be. I compete hard, leave everything out there every time. Sometimes it's about managing situations a bit better mentally. I think there will come a time.

Definitely, I'd say the biggest thing is just the amount of matches I've played at high levels. That's sort of where it gets exposed more. Once it gets exposed more, because sometimes I get away with it. I might win a match at futures. Oh, I won. At the challenger level for me, I sort of got exposed to that quite often, where I'd lose some tight three-setters, I would sit down with my coach and it would be the same recurring theme of, Hey, like, you let it slip there. You were too emotional. You lasted too long in that patch, and maybe a bit of anger or disappointment or whatever.

I think that's something I've worked on a lot since to try and make sure that I'm a bit more level and recognizing the dips in concentration, a bit more anger, trying to bring myself back, sort of being more kind to myself when it does happen. You can't play the perfect tennis match.

Q. Jack was in here 40 minutes ago talking you up, saying you're heading to the top hundred. Not to put any pressure on you, but what does it mean that he has that belief in you?

JACK PINNINGTON JONES: It's amazing. He's obviously at the top of the game right now, hunting amazing things. For him to back me and believe in me, it's great. He's around it every week. It's his job.

For him to believe that I could be there and I'm on the right track, is pretty special. He's seen me at some low points in my career so far. He's seen me right now at some high points.

He's always been the same sort of belief and mindset of, Hey, you put in the work, you'll get what you deserve in this game. That's something that sort of stuck with me. When I was younger, I don't think I was mature enough to buy in and understand that.

Definitely over the last two, three years, seeing how well he's done, Jake has done, Norrie, all those guys, and they're all telling me the same message like, Hey, this could be you if you put in the work, it's exciting for me. I'm no longer scared of that hard work and wanting to get stuck in.

I think that's my job now. I want to do it and just be the best tennis player I can be. Whether that's 100, 20, who knows? But just make sure I can leave my career knowing that I have put in a shift and gave it everything is what it means to me now.

From Jack's perspective to say that stuff, it obviously means a lot. He's told me that a lot in private, as well. It means a lot for me.