Jack Draper ready for Wimbledon spotlight as great British hope

LONDON – For a brief two weeks every year the British public becomes hooked on tennis, desperately seeking a home player to cheer to sporting glory on the fabled lawns of Wimbledon and this year the spotlight falls on Jack Draper.

For decades, it was a cause for hysteria if a British player survived to the second week of the singles.

Then came Tim Henman’s multiple journeys to the semi-finals before Andy Murray became a national hero by ending a 77-year wait for a men’s champion by winning the title in 2013.

The Scot repeated the feat three years later.

Johanna Konta reached the semi-finals in 2017, as did Cameron Norrie in 2022, and Emma Raducanu’s astonishing US Open triumph as a qualifier in 2021 means she is now saddled with trying to become the first British player to win the women’s title since Virginia Wade in 1977.

Murray is retired and will have a statue erected in his honour at the All England Club but, right on cue, Draper has stepped into the breach and looks capable of shouldering a nations hopes on his broad shoulders.

Draper, 23, has won only two matches in three previous visits to Wimbledon. But the past 12 months has seen him evolve from a player regarded as physically fragile to a beast of the courts with the weapons to challenge the very best.

He ended last year ranked 15th in the world after a dream run to the US Open semi-finals. But he was clearly hungry to go much higher and after claiming the biggest title of his career at Indian Wells and reaching the final in Madrid, the left-hander will arrive at Wimbledon as the fourth seed.

Blessed with a potent southpaw serve, a thunderbolt forehand some are likening to that of