Jack Draper is licking his wounds after a bruising defeat against Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros, but former British No 1 Tim Henman has insisted the 23-year-old is ready to challenge for the biggest titles in the sport.
Draper has been one of the stand-out players of 2025, with his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells backed up by a run to the Madrid Open final on clay.
He was tipped to make it through to a first Roland Garros quarter-final and a showdown with world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who beat him in last year’s US Open semi-finals.
Now Henman has stated his belief that Draper is a big contender to have success on grass courts this summer, as he predicted he will have big runs at Wimbledon over the next decade and more.
“There are three big things in Jack Draper’s favour right now,” Henman told Tennis365 in the TNT Sports studios at Roland Garros.
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“First of all, he is fit and healthy and that has not always been the case in the first few years of his career.
“Secondly, he is confident and is heading into this phase of the season with a different mindset that he might have had a year ago after everything he has achieved.
“Thirdly, he knows how to play on grass. He won a title on this surface last year and he has a game that is perfect for the surface.”
When asked to assess whether Draper could have a shot at having deep runs at Wimbledon starting from this year’s tournament, he offered this confident prediction.
“Jack is just scratching the surface of what is possible in his career,” he continued. “I always think you should judge a player when they have played a tournament twice at a time in their career, when they were competing at the top.
“We are getting to that point now with Jack. For a long time, he was not getting through matches, he was struggling physically, but now he has had 12 months to build momentum and you have seen what he has done.
“Give him another 12 months and we will talk about Draper having some genuine rivalries with the players at the top of the sport.
“His rivalry with (Carlos) Alcaraz is blossoming and now we would like to see them play more matches in big tournaments.”
The British media are certain to hype up Draper’s Wimbledon chances this summer and as Henman has been on the end of that kind of attention, he is one of the few who can appreciate the weight of expectations.
Yet the four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist has urged Draper to enjoy his role in the spotlight this British summer.
“It’s good, I don’t think it will be tough for him to handle,” added Henman.
“I think he really understands that there are a few opinions that are important to him and the rest of it is noise. He is learning to block that out.
“He is paying less attention to people that don’t matter to him and he has a great team around him that are steering him in the right direction.
“He can’t control what the press might write about him, so why worry about it.
“If he’s on Instagram, Twitter or whatever social media platform, he’s mad. Those opinions are irrelevant.”
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