Jamie Murray sends Emma Raducanu a blunt message about Jack Draper after Wimbledon
Emma Raducanu needs to find a level of consistency in her game before she can be considered on an equal footing to Jack Draper. That's the opinion of Jamie Murray, who believes that Draper is in a much better position, despite exiting Wimbledon a round earlier than Raducanu.
Draper went into Wimbledon as the No.4 seed – the highest-ranked Brit at the Grand Slam since Andy Murray in 2017 – but was knocked out in the second round by Marin Cilic. Despite the disappointment, the 23-year-old is ranked fifth in the world after reaching the US Open semi-finals last year and winning Indian Wells in March.
Raducanu reached the third round, beating 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova before losing to world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka. Her win over Vondrousova and performance against Sabalenka offered plenty of encouragement for Raducanu, but she has lost her title as Britain's No.1, with Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal both ranked higher than her No.45.
Murray saw positive signs from the 2021 US Open champion at Wimbledon, but urged caution in drawing comparisons with Draper. 'She actually got a good draw, playing a young British girl (Mimi Xu) in the first match,' he told Mirror Sport.
'But if you're unseeded then you're going to have to play top players pretty early in the event. I would say the third round is a good result, all things considered. She had a competitive match with Sabalenka.
'Hopefully she goes and has a good summer in America. But it's not like Jack – he was number four in the world [at Wimbledon]. He's putting results together all the time, he's proven that he's world-class and a top player.'
Referring to Raducanu's ranking of No.45 in the world, he added: 'That's miles away from being at the level that Jack is at. Of course she had an unbelievable result at the US Open. But she obviously needs to win a lot more matches to be talked about as a contender for these tournaments.
'But of course, the hype is obviously massive based on her story of winning the US Open a few years ago. Not to talk bad about Emma, but Jack is in a completely different place in his career than where she is.'
Draper arrived at Wimbledon with expectations sky-high following a fantastic period of form, but was bested by 36-year-old veteran Cilic. Murray, a seven-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, is not in the least bit concerned.
'Jack had a disappointing Wimbledon for him, but it was a tough draw in Cilic when the guy has won Grand Slams, been in finals, loves playing on grass and is a former Queens winner, that's a tough match for him,' he said.
'I'm sure he'll come back stronger next year and in the future years and he'll be at the top of the game for 10 years – he'll be one of the guys in that chasing pack trying to get to the level of [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz and compete with them on the biggest stage. I'm excited for Jack and what's to come for him. I don't think this Wimbledon is going to define how his future career goes in any shape or form.'
At 39, Murray is a veteran of British tennis, having won the Davis Cup in 2015, and he also sounded a note of criticism over the system pushing through the next generation of players. Ahead of Wimbledon there were positive stories about there being 23 players in the singles draws – the most since 1984 – but Murray thinks that was oversold.
'You've got 23 people in the main draw, but 16 of them are wild cards,' he said. 'So that's seven players across the men and women in the main draw. I wouldn't say that's fantastic at all for a nation that's got much cash behind it every year. That's not great numbers at all, but that's where we are.'
Jamie Murray and Laura Robson broke a Guinness World record by completing a rally of 101 consecutive shots as the Lexus NX became the latest court for the stars to play on.
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