John McEnroe has named the player he has been “most pleasantly surprised” with out of Jack Draper, Arthur Fils, Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca.
The young quartet of Draper, Fils, Mensik and Fonseca have all made impressive strides on the ATP Tour this year.
Draper is enjoying an excellent 2025 season so far and is at a career-high ranking of world No 5, while Mensik is ranked 18th having secured his maiden title at the Miami Open in March.
Fils is at a career-high position of 14th after strong Masters 1000 results, while Fonseca claimed his first career title in Buenos Aires in February.
During a TNT Sports event, Tennis365 asked McEnroe which of Draper, Fils, Mensik and Fonseca does he view as the biggest long-term challenger to Alcaraz and Sinner.
“Well, that’s pretty much the guys that I would throw into the mix right now,” the former world No 1 said.
“Draper’s impressed me the most. I didn’t see the athleticism that he’s showing, that desire, you know, that willingness to dig as deep as he has, to fight through even times where he’s cramping, or illness.
“So if I had to pick one guy that I’m most pleasantly surprised with, I would say it’s Jack.
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“He was in the finals in Madrid. He’s had some good success on the clay, which is impressive.
“But I would look at Wimbledon, where he’s gonna get a lot of crowd support, as the most likely one, and even on the hard courts.
“But these other guys are coming along, and there will be a few other guys that will sort of step in as well, that maybe we don’t know about.”
Draper won the biggest title of his career at the Indian Wells Masters in March and was also a runner-up at the Madrid Masters. The 23-year-old Brit’s impressive clay season concluded with a four-set fourth round French Open loss to Alexander Bublik.
McEnroe also gave his verdict on 22-year-old American star Ben Shelton.
The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion said: “I thought Ben Shelton had the opportunity to step into a void that’s opening up with Roger [Federer] retiring and Rafa [Nadal] – and Novak [Djokovic] 38 now, how much longer is he gonna play?
“He (Shelton) seems to have levelled off. Perhaps, I don’t wanna say stepped back, but not enough steps forward. So, it would be nice for us here obviously if we were able to get an American male to win a major, which hasn’t happened in over 20 years.”
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