When Jack Draper first met a red-haired Italian boy named Jannik Sinner, he was less than impressed.
“I remember playing him in doubles,” recalls Draper, who was 15 when he and Sinner first met at a junior event in Berlin. “We said, ‘Hit him, because he’s not the best player on the court!'”
Draper didn’t know that Sinner would one day become an important figure in his life. Not only as an opponent – because these talented men will meet each other in the semifinals of the US Open on Friday – but also as a friend.
Just a month ago, Draper and Sinner played doubles together on tour in Montreal, winning two rounds before withdrawing – likely because Sinner was more interested in his singles quarterfinal against Andrey Rublev the next day.
They share a mutually supportive bond, with each man following the other’s results and offering reassurance—a much-needed quality amid the solitary life of a traveling tennis pro. But this is no time for sentimentality. Draper must put their personal connection aside if he is to reach his first Grand Slam final.
In a surprise move – given Sinner’s position as top seed and world number 1 – Draper goes as the winner of their only previous tour, which took place at Queen’s in 2021.
Sinner was already a top-20 player with two ATP titles and a quarterfinal at the French Open to his name. Draper was ranked 309 and had recently caused a stir by collapsing in the Miami heat.
A home crowd and the elusive way Draper’s left-hand serve kept sliding sideways off the lush grass provided a major upset. “I thought I had no chance of beating Jannik,” Draper said afterward, “so I didn’t even look at who I was playing next.”
Real bromance
During the same press conference, Draper explained that “I spoke to him for the first time before the game. He’s a really nice guy. I’m sure we’ll become good friends as I get to know him better.”
It must have been a nice conversation, because it was the beginning of a real tennis bromance: a rarity in this mainly egotistical circuit.
In the run-up to the US Open, Draper even defended Sinner in the recent controversy surrounding Clostebol, the banned steroid that caused Sinner to fail two doping tests in March.
“He’s going through a lot right now,” Draper said on the eve of the tournament. “I’m very close to Jannik and I would honestly say he’s one of the nicest, most genuine, friendly, professional guys I’ve ever seen on tour.
“Anything can get into your system and in the strangest ways. I really don’t think Jannik had any idea what was going on. To know about this, and to carry it on his shoulders for the last four or five months, and to reach semi-finals of grand slams and win Masters events… I don’t think many people could have done that.”
Partners in crime
It seems strange to think that both players now arrived in New York under a cloud, with Draper’s attack – in the eyes of several established tennis names such as Nick Kyrgios and Andy Roddick – an unsportsmanlike failure to shout “bump ball” at himself in the third round of Cincinnati.
Whatever you think of their alleged misdeeds, neither player has shown any sign of distraction during the tournament. Sinner has dropped just two sets in five rounds – the last in his comfortable 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Daniil Medvedev on Friday night – and Draper none.
Another thing they have in common is that when they first met on the doubles track in 2017, both men were very much understudy. As a young boy, Sinner had shown a huge talent for skiing, finishing second at the Italian National Giant Slalom Championships at the age of 12.
He didn’t start playing tennis seriously until he was 13, after noticing that “if you make one mistake, [in skiing]it’s all over.” Despite his rapid progress under the expert eye of legendary Italian coach Riccardo Piatti, he was still quite green when he went to Berlin for that doubles match alongside Davide Tortora, now a tennis student at the University of Mississippi.
Motivated by criticism
As for Draper, he was playing with his former sparring partner George Loffhagen, who was considered the better prospect at the time. There was a turning point in January 2018 when Alan Jones – another influential coach who sadly passed away earlier this year – was quoted as saying that Draper had travelled to Australia as Loffhagen’s hitting partner, rather than a title contender of his own. After reading that quote, Draper recalled: “I’d never been more motivated in my life.”
As you can see, there’s a certain hare-and-tortoise moral to Draper’s story. The same lessons even apply to the comparisons between Emma Raducanu’s lightning strike at the 2021 US Open and Draper’s more measured progress.
“I’ve had a few blessings in disguise,” Draper said this week. “I’ve gotten hurt a couple of times. It’s made me realize that I have to put my whole life into this sport. I have to eat the right things, have good people around me and shut myself off.”
If he manages to surprise Sinner on Friday, the former turtle will have become the fastest climber on both tours.
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