“That’s not even an issue,” Jack Draper’s coach Wayne Ferreira predicts top-10 breakthrough

Tennis News
Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 23:00
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Jack Draper's coach, Wayne Ferreira, analyzed the current status of the new Brit No. 1 and assured that he has the potential to reach the top 10. The 22-year-old won his first title at the Stuttgart Open on Sunday and debuted at the Queen’s Club Championship with a win against Mariano Navone.
The Brit continues his winning streak on grass and had a stellar debut as Brit No. 1 in London. Draper secured his sixth consecutive victory on grass. In the second round, he will have the opportunity to test his skills against world No. 2 and 2023 Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Ferreira's confidence in Draper’s path to Top-10: “I think he has the ability to get there"

The first week of the grass-swing highlighted Draper as the main protagonist, who seems to be leaving the bitterness of injuries behind and is beginning to find his path in the tennis elite. Accompanied by his coach Wayne Ferreira since the beginning of the season, the 22-year-old player reached his best ranking as world No. 31.
aDraper had already shown glimpses of his talent during 2022 and 2023 but had not yet made the definitive leap after several injury breaks. The work with Ferreira is beginning to pay off, and the coach spoke on The Tennis Podcast to reveal how his association with Draper began, after parting ways with Frances Tiafoe at the end of 2023.
“I've been watching Jack for a while, and he ended up playing Frances when I was working with him in the Paris Indoors. Even though Francis beat him, I thought that he had huge potential. He had a lot of ability. I liked the way that he played and thought that he'd be somebody that I could really work with and want to help.”
“I reached out to Ben, his brother who manages him, and told him that I thought that Jack had a lot of potential. You know, if they were interested in getting somebody else to come part of their team, I would be very interested to help,” he added.
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Jack Draper in 2022 Madrid Open
“I just felt that I could add a little extra to the team to help him move to that next level, certain parts of the game where I could help tweak a little bit regarding the serve, which we've been working on a lot in the last two months, being a little bit more aggressive, picking the right balls to come forward. So there's not a lot of changes to be made with him; it's pretty well established, but just trying to help him on the little things to get him better.”
“Probably the biggest problem or issue that he's had is being aggressive, learning to come forward. You know, he's developed very, very well on a defensive base. He competes well, he moves well, he defends well, but he's off inside of his game. He's weak and he needs to improve on it; he needs to get more out of the serve, a little bit more of the first ball, but just being a little bit more aggressive,” the former Sudafrican tennis player said.
“I definitely think that he can make top 10. I mean, that's not even an issue. I think he has the ability to get there, and then from there, it depends on how things go and how he improves and where he kinda gets that little extra that makes him, you know, that person that can get there,” Wayne Ferreira stated. “But top 10 I think is very, very achievable, and then after that, you know, it's hard to know, but I mean, he has the ability to do better than that.
“I think he's a lot better on the quicker surfaces. I think he'll do well in the indoors and the hard courts. Wimbledon will be a great tournament for him, but I think he has the ability to do well in the Australian Open and the US Open too. I don't think Wimbledon's gonna be any better than he would do on the others; he has the game to do well on all the relatively faster surfaces.”

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