Jack Draper confessed he puked into a courtside bin in sheer relief after overcoming an on-court panic attack to win the first five-set match of his career. The British No.4 needed a medical timeout after losing the second set – and gave himself a pep talk in the mirror after also losing the third.
But despite struggling with the heat and American opponent Marcos Giron, the world No.55 fought back to win 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 in three hours and 20 minutes. As soon as he hit a running forehand winner to take his second match point, he briefly shook hands with the American before running to the courtside bin to vomit.
“I don’t usually get sick, not ever,” said Draper, 22. “I think it’s weird. It was obviously a physical match. It’s tough conditions. It wasn’t that long for a five-set match. I played three hours, 40 last week in hotter conditions, and I was physically absolutely fine.
“I think it’s obviously a Grand Slam. It’s tougher sort of with the tension to play that first match. I was obviously unsure of the way I would be playing because of the different conditions. I think I’m still a young player, so getting used to the environment around these Slams and the tension is difficult.
“I think it was more kind of psychological stress today that was causing my sort of fatigue rather than the physical nature because I felt better in the fifth set than I did the first.
“Was it a puke of relief? Yeah. I obviously played such a long point, maybe it was sort of a reaction to finally getting over the line. I don’t know. I kind of felt bad because I obviously just beat the guy, and I was saying: ‘I need to shake your hand, mate, but I need to get to that bin’.”
Draper has been dogged by injuries during his career and pulled out of the French Open and missed Wimbledon with a shoulder problem. But after working on his fitness and losing 3kgs, he said he will now seek psychological help to help with anxiety which hinders his physical performance.
“I always felt like the physical issues, like a lot of that has been for me mental as well, sort of dealing with stress, dealing with my emotions,” said Draper, who reached the US Open fourth round last September. “Obviously as I’m getting physically better, I can maybe cope with it a little bit better, but it’s definitely an area that is really important as well.
“Today, when I called the medical timeout, I just felt like my chest was very tight. It was referring to my back, and I just felt I couldn’t really hold myself up. I think, yeah, that’s what stress does to you.
“I’ve never really felt like a lot of tension in my tennis. That’s not the issue. It’s like when you do have that anxiety when you are playing, obviously there’s a lot going on. It’s hot. There’s sort of no way out from the court. You have to really suffer to win the points, and you’ve got to work hard.
“Every player feels it, and every player has different kind of ways they struggle with it, whether it’s someone getting really tight on their forehand, and they can’t hit a forehand. It might be their movement starts to go a little bit.
“For me, it feels like my breathing starts to really struggle, and I can’t get the oxygen in me. That’s obviously a difficult point when you are playing. You are not only playing the guy, you are almost competing against yourself because you’re not obviously feeling 100%.
“There’s no doubting I’m really proud to come through this match, and I think it is really important for me. But there’s still some underlying stuff that obviously I need to work on, whether that be psychologically starting these slams or just the way I’m handling the anxiety and the nerves because I obviously don’t want to play a match like that where I feel like I’m on my hands and knees a lot, and I’m struggling to breathe and calm myself down. That’s not a positive.
“But it is a big positive that physically I was able to come through the match, not cramp. As the match went on, I got better and better. I’m hoping that as I keep getting more and more experiences and I’m playing at this high level in big-pressure environments that it’s going to get better.”
