Jack Draper is ensuring he doesn’t set foot on a tennis court on Christmas Day following a successful pre-season training block. The British No 4 admitted that he didn’t agree with those who wanted to practice no matter what and decided to choose a turkey dinner and family time over hitting at the National Tennis Centre.
Draper is hoping to have a more successful 2024 season after he spent much of this year sidelined due to injuries. The 22-year-old started 2023 by reaching a career-high ranking of No 38 in the world but suffered a setback in Indian Wells before he hurt his shoulder at the French Open and was forced to miss the entire grass-court swing.
He has since returned to No 61 in the world and ended the season by making his first ATP Tour final in Sofia. Eager to continue on his upward trajectory, Draper has been putting in the work at the NTC over the off-season but he drew the line at training on Christmas Day.
Sharing his plans for December 25, Draper said: “Turkey, have a good Christmas with the family.” While some players opt to train through the Christmas period, the British No 4 explained why it was the wrong idea for him.
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“Obviously there’s all this stuff around people saying, train through Christmas day, no sleep, gotta work, work,” he continued. “It’s like, you’ve got to train smart and do all the right things but number one is to be happy and make sure that you’re looking after your mental health and your family as well.
“So I’m just going to be having a good day with family and then I’ll be training on Boxing Day and the days after.” While he won’t be training at Christmas, Draper has already spent several weeks at the LTA’s main training facility in Roehampton after learning from his previous pre-season mistakes.
The world No 61 added: “Last year I did my pre-season in America, I sort of learned from that, don’t think I’ll be doing that again because of the time differences, the changes. You go there for two weeks but you’re recovering for two days from the jet leg and then on the way back, you get ill very easily when you’re on flights.
“So I’ve been doing my pre-season in the UK. I’ve got a great team around me at the National Tennis Centre, I’ve got everything I need there, any court time I need, if I want to bring stuff on the court from the gym then I can do that. There’s not much stuff in the way, it’s not difficult if that makes sense. I can do anything I need.”
And it appears that Draper doesn’t need to put in the extra hours on December 25 as he is already feeling positive about his game thanks to his hard work. “I’ve been really happy with my block and I think I’m in honestly the best shape and the best place tennis-wise I’ve ever been so I’m really happy,” he admitted.
Draper also managed to fit an exhibition event into his training block, making his debut at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown when the tournament was staged in the London ExCel. In front of a home crowd, he managed to win the whole thing. Players compete to earn as many points as they can across four eight-minute-long quarters and the Brit was able to defeat the likes of Holger Rune and Casper Ruud en route to the trophy.
