Fourth seed Jack Draper was visibly upset as his Wimbledon campaign ended with a defeat against Marin Cilic on Thursday night.
In a packed press conference theatre in the Wimbledon broadcast centre, Draper admitted his form on grass has been poor and he admitted he needs to improve on this surface if he is to have a chance in his home Grand Slam.
“I’ve been really disappointed with the way my game’s been on the grass this year, in all honesty,” admitted Draper after the match.
“I wasn’t feeling too great at Queen’s. I don’t know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final. Yeah, highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass, in all honesty.
“I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn’t many holes, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference. So it’s just something that I’ve got to keep in mind, how I’m going to develop my game for the long-term for next year, just to get better as a player.
“For sure, highlighted a lot of weaknesses in my game, especially against a player the way he was playing today, someone who’s as good as him on the grass.”
He was asked if the pressure of playing in his home Grand Slam was a factor in his defeat and admitted his experience in the grass court season heightened his admiration for Andy Murray after he won twice at Wimbledon.
“It makes me think that Andy’s achievement of what he did winning here twice, just unbelievable,” he stated.
“It’s not the pressure, it’s not the whatever. I just didn’t play good enough today. I lost to a better player.”
“I wasn’t going out there thinking I was under so much pressure. Like, I don’t know, obviously you guys mention it all the time. It’s just I wasn’t good enough today. That’s the main reason. I just was not able to find the level I wanted. I came up short.”
Draper’s backhand appeared to be a weak spot against Cilic, but he picked out his normally fearsome forehand as his biggest problem.
“I think it’s grass, in all honesty. I think the hole in my forehand showed up, for sure. I wasn’t able to deal with his pace of ball into my forehand. I was over-spinning a lot,” he added.
“I think a lot of my success this year with my forehand, when I have more time, it’s a lot easier for me because I can create the speed and the spin that I want, and the effectiveness of that.
“Obviously, movement could have been better. There’s many areas of my game which I still really, really need to work on to be the player I want to be.
“I want to feel like everything in my game is secure. I think that’s what you see with the top, top guys. They’re so consistent all the time because there’s no holes in their game.
“I think the last couple weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I’ve had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I’ve still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game. In some ways that’s exciting, and in some ways that’s hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.
“I think there’s a bit of a misconception like, just ’cause I’m a 6’4′ lefty, I must be incredible on grass. I obviously won Stuttgart, but I haven’t had loads of experience on it.
“I don’t think I played incredibly well on it before. Obviously I’ve never gone past the second round here. Some players find it harder than others.
“I’m obviously very determined to change that and make it a surface that is going to be great for me. I feel like that’s the way with every surface.”
Draper’s honesty can only be admired after one of the toughest defeats of his career and he will be back next year to have another stab at Wimbledon glory.
