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Jack Draper picks the ATP player he would choose to play a match to save his life if they needed to win

Jack Draper of Great Britain speaks to the media against Andrey Rublev of Russia during the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. Inset, a mystery player.
Credit: Getty Images/Tnani Badredine/DeFodi Images/
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Jack Draper grew up watching some of the greatest ATP players before becoming a professional himself.

Draper won Indian Wells earlier this month, climbing into the top 10 for the first time after winning his biggest career title to date.

However, the British number one was unable to back this result up at the Miami Open, with Draper losing to Jakub Mensik in his only match at the tournament.

There was controversy at the Miami Open during this match, with Draper and Mensik being interrupted in the second set.

While Draper is no longer in the tournament, he has faced a difficult dilemma after being asked a life or death question.

2023 Australian Open - Day 1
Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty Images

Jack Draper picks the ATP player he would choose to save his life

Prior winning the title at Indian Wells, Draper played a practise tie-break with tennis Youtube star and world number 2033 Felix Mischker.

After Draper won this tie-break in windy conditions, he was asked some questions on the Tennis Brothers YouTube channel.

One of the more notable questions concerned who Draper would choose to play a match to save his life.

In his response, Draper firstly named Rafael Nadal and then also 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

“I would say Rafa on the clay, but if I wasn’t going to say that I would say Djokovic any day of the week,” answered Draper.

Nadal, who retired last year, is the most successful player in history on clay and has won more titles than any other player in history on the surface (63).

The Spaniard won 90% of his 535 career matches on clay, highlighted by Nadal’s 14 Roland Garros titles, resulting in him having the nickname ‘the King of Clay’.

While Djokovic has not been quite as dominant on one particular surface, he does have the advantage in their head-to-head.

Career RecordsRafael NadalNovak Djokovic
Hard 518-151 (77%)716-133 (84%)
Clay 484-51 (90%)286-69 (81%)
Grass76-20 (79%)120-20 (86%)
Carpet2-6 (25%)9-4 (69%)
Overall1080-223 (83%)1131-226 (83%)

Draper has experience of playing again both Djokovic and Nadal, having lost to them at Wimbledon (2021) and the Australian Open (2023), respectively.

Jack Draper says who his favorite player of all time to watch is

Draper has previously called Djokovic the GOAT (greatest of all time), but told Mischker that it was actually Nadal who he idolised growing up.

In his answer, Draper also mentioned Andy Murray and former US Open champion Dominic Thiem, but came back to Nadal as his final answer.

“It’s got to be Rafa,” said Draper. “I mean like I loved watching Andy, I loved watching Thiem when I was younger, but Rafa I mean just like…I’d get really pumped every time he was scheduled to play.”

Like Nadal, Draper plays tennis with his left hand, but is actually naturally right handed.

Draper will be hoping to replicate some of Nadal’s career achievements as well, as he looks to continue his climb up the ATP rankings.

The Brit’s next tournament is the Monte Carlo Masters, where Nadal is a record 11-time singles champion.