Jack Draper credits newfound maturity for career-best season

Jack Draper, Britain’s No.1 tennis player, has credited an increase in maturity for his career-best performances on the ATP Tour in 2024.

The 22-year-old has long been regarded as a future talent, but it was not until this season that Draper converted those expectations into reality, making a maiden Grand Slam semi-final and bagging titles in Vienna and Stuttgart.

Tennis betting sites now have him paying the shortest odds out of any non-top-10 player at several majors in 2025.

Bovada has the Brit on the sixth line of betting for the Australian Open (+3300) and US Open (+2500), and on the fourth line for Wimbledon (+1400).

Draper explained that it was an injury layoff in 2023 which caused a switch in his mentality ahead of this season.

“That’s when the penny dropped that I really needed to change,” he said.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really have much of a working mentality.

“When you’re young, you step into the world of tennis, and you don’t really know what it’s all about.

“It’s a brutal change, because you realise that if you want to be good, you have to mature and be an adult when you’re 20 years old.

“I wasn’t quite ready for that.

“I didn’t want to put in hard work. I didn’t want to sacrifice. I didn’t want to be professional. I didn’t want to do all the things it takes.

“I’m very, very proud of the way I took it upon myself to really be different and I’ve got a lot of rewards from those decisions.

“A lot of good things have come from just trying to really take it upon myself to be better and grow, be a better person, be more independent and just more of a man.”

Draper will be seeded at the Australian Open for the first time in his career in January 2025, with the Brit’s ranking improving from No.61 at the start of this year to No.15 currently.

Ahead of next season’s first Grand Slam, he will represent Great Britain in the United Cup in Sydney alongside Billy Harris and Charles Broom.

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