Jack Draper crashed out of the French Open at the round of 16 after coming up against an inspired Alexander Bublik.
The Great Britain number one actually took the first set after breaking towards the end of it, but that appeared to give Bublik an opportunity to click into gear, with the Kazakhstan star blowing Draper away in the next three sets.
Bublik is the first man from his country to make the last eight of a Grand Slam and he will now lock horns with the world number one Jannik Sinner for a place in Friday’s semi-finals.
For Draper, the result is literally just one of those things. He couldn’t really have done much more, and he can still look back on this clay-court tournament with a lot of pride, given a lack of experience on this particular surface.
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Jack Draper shares how far he think he’s behind Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner
It’s such a shame that Draper won’t get the match-up that the supporters were dying to see with Sinner, but there will be time for that later in his career.
Intriguingly, in his post-match press conference, Draper seemed quite relaxed, and although he was disappointed, he conceded that he’s a little bit behind the two best players in the world, especially when it comes to experience.
He said: “Yeah, big time. For sure. I still think I’m a long way behind those boys, a little bit. I’ve still got a lot to learn. If you look at the matches, they’ve probably played double the amount that I’ve played. They’re probably a year or two ahead of me. Obviously achieved a lot more. A lot more experience. I have a lot to do to catch up with them, in all honesty.
“My level is getting better all the time, but it’s not just the tennis. It’s the maturity, the consistency… doing it when it matters. These are the tournaments that matter.
“I’ve got a lot to go still to get to them. I think I’m working hard and doing the right things. Definitely really difficult to not get the opportunity to play Jannik or whoever it is in the quarters.”
Draper will now start immediate preparation for Wimbledon
It will sting for a few days that Draper is out of the French Open, but it’s fair to say that at this stage of his career, clay court tennis is not really the surface that he’s renowned for producing the goods on.
Draper will come again at Roland Garros, and now the challenge is to prepare for Queen’s, where he despatched Carlos Alcaraz at last year’s tournament and enjoyed a strong run of form.
It’s brave of Draper to say that he’s quite some distance behind Sinner and Alcaraz. Soon, however, he will be the world number four, and that certainly bodes well for the future, considering where he thinks he sits in comparison to those players at the moment.
Draper will be full of confidence going into Wimbledon and given that the next Grand Slam is just around the corner, it should be easy enough for him to shake off this defeat to Bublik.
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