Latest news with #JonathanJurejko
BBC News
05-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
How Draper has become a force on clay
In the latest edition of Second Serve, our weekly snapshot of the tours, BBC tennis reporter Jonathan Jurejko analyses Jack Draper's improved clay-court game. Another inquest into the lack of British clay-court success opened at last year's French the third time this century, the British singles players suffered a first-round wipeout at Roland Garros and led to many fans questioning - again - why the nation has struggled to produce players who win regularly on the red Draper was among the beaten Britons after an error-strewn defeat by Dutch qualifier Jesper de forward almost a year and Draper is now a clay-court ATP Masters British men's number one enjoyed a productive run at the Madrid Open before losing an intense three-set battle against two-time French Open runner-up Casper Ruud."There isn't a surface in my mind that Jack can't play on," former British number one Tim Henman told BBC Sport last month."When you look at his attributes – he's got a big, lefty serve, he hits his forehand with a lot of spin and power - they work on any surface, certainly on clay."Despite his previous lack of success, Draper always felt he could challenge - providing he was primed matches in the tank have been key for a player who has often been hampered by fitness 23-year-old has gained greater belief in his body after coming through a series of gruelling five-set matches at the Australian Open in physio Shane Annun and fitness trainer Matt Little - who were both long-term members of Andy Murray's team - has benefitted him."I went from thinking that I was weak and like I wasn't going to be able to carry on, to then feeling 'wow, I'm actually pretty strong'," Draper said. This was illustrated during Draper's semi-final against Lorenzo Musetti in Madrid. The Briton seemed to be fading in the second set and battled to hang on to his serve - then found another gear in a tie-break to increase his intensity and secure is seen as the most physically demanding surface because its slower speed leads to longer points and more brutal not the most natural surface for Draper. He has worked hard on his movement and the ability to slide across the more mobile means he can get in the right positions to execute his most potent serve - both in terms of power and variety - allows him to start points strongly, but it was his forehand that really caught the eye in topspin and speed wowed fans at the Caja Magica, even drawing a few comparisons to Rafael Nadal - the recently retired 'King of Clay' who won a record 14 French Open is suggested Draper will have that level of success, of course, but like Nadal he has been using the pace and bounce of his forehand to trouble opponents."My forehand's come into own on all surfaces but this year on the clay it's really doing a lot of damage," said Draper."I'm trying to base my game around that and my serve, and getting more and more efficient."In Madrid, Draper also found the right blend between defence and attack, while using the drop shot at the right time was also an effective all the positive signs, it is telling that Draper - like all great players who harbour ambitions of winning Grand Slam titles - has an insatiable appetite for further his post-final news conference in Madrid, he highlighted his serve, net play and physicality as the areas he needed to particularly work on."I'm nowhere near where I want to be," Draper said."There are plenty of things that are going to keep on improving and I'm going to keep on getting better and better. I believe that." Aryna Sabalenka strengthened her position at the top of the WTA rankings by winning a third Madrid Open uncertainty around Novak Djokovic continues. The 24-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of the Italian Open after an early exit in Madrid and looks unlikely to play again before the French Madrid Open was plunged into chaos when a power outage swept across Spain. It led to candlelit meals, no showers after matches and long walks home for players. Draper has made the most notable move in the ATP rankings, climbing to a new career high of fifth in the is only the fourth Briton - after Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Andy Murray - to break into the men's top Ruud regained his place in the top 10 by winning the Madrid final, with Italy's Musetti joining him there for the first time in his career. Former world number one Daniil Medvedev dropped out of the top 10 for only the fourth week since July 2019, while Canada's Gabriel Diallo jumped 24 places to 54th after reaching the Madrid quarters. In the WTA rankings, Sabalenka's title win helped her open up a whopping 4,345-point gap over Polish world number two Iga Gauff, who lost to Sabalenka in Saturday's final, moved back to third spot above American compatriot Jessica Pegula. Former world number one Naomi Osaka is back inside the top 50, having dropped down a level to win a WTA Challenger event in France. Both tours are heading to Rome for another combined ATP and WTA clay-court event played over a focus of attention will be Jannik Sinner, who returns from his three-month ban for twice failing doping Italian world number one will be granted a hero's welcome by the home fans. But what about in the locker room?The story around Sinner's comeback is analysed here. Draper was the only British singles player in Tour-level action at the weekend, with Jacob Fearnley and Cameron Norrie going out of the Madrid last 16 on Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal - the top three British women - returned to the National Tennis Centre after losing in Madrid last trio continued to practice on the clay courts before heading out to Rome, where they each have direct entry into the main must go through qualifying, along with Billy Harris and Harriet Dart. What is Second Serve? With so many professional tennis tournaments taking place across the world, and across so many levels, it can be hard to keep up with everything from one week to the part of BBC Sport's commitment to offer more for tennis fans, Second Serve will be your weekly round-up of the biggest stories in the well as the main talking point, you can see which ATP and WTA players are making significant progress - or struggling for form, how the British contingent are doing and what the next stops on the calendars can also sign up to get the latest tennis news from BBC Sport delivered straight to your mobile phone.
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Are the 'mini Grand Slams' working?
In the latest edition of Second Serve, our weekly snapshot of the tours, BBC tennis reporter Jonathan Jurejko weighs up the pros and cons of the extended Madrid Open. With the two-week Madrid Open reaching the halfway point, it is the perfect time to revisit a thorny issue in several ATP and WTA tournaments across a fortnight has caused some controversy – and it's debatable how successful the move has thinking was the elongated events would have greater gravitas - essentially creating 'mini Grand Slams'.According to ATP and WTA bosses, that meant increased financial opportunities for more benefit would be players having days off between matches, allowing for better recovery and, in theory, more high-quality in turn, would be more engaged and media coverage would increase, creating a buzz around them like the existing four many, it has not panned out like players are certainly divided. In Madrid, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek both responded positively when asked what they said she enjoys the longer format because she can "rest" physically and mentally between matches, while Swiatek added she doesn't "think about it anymore".But the top stars – the ones who go regularly deep in these draws – are the players more likely to benefit from the days further down the chain have voiced recent lawsuit lodged by the Professional Tennis Players' Association – which claimed to be on "behalf of the entire player population" – said that "instead of providing professional tennis players more rest between tournaments to endure a longer season, the ATP and WTA have given them less".It was also telling that Novak Djokovic, who co-founded the PTPA, gave a lengthy answer about the subject in his pre-Madrid news about Carlos Alcaraz saying he felt like a "slave" to the game, Djokovic referenced the negative effect of the extended events."Now we essentially don't have four Grand Slams - we have maybe 12 Grand Slams. It's a lot," he of the nine ATP Masters are now played over a fortnight, along with six of the 10 WTA first week of the combined Madrid Open - a mixture of qualifying and main-draw matches - felt like a slow main stadiums at the Caja Magica were rarely full, although the grounds were swelled by hundreds of children on school trips. For many of those further afar, the disjointed scheduling can seem illogical and difficult to anything change?ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi is committed to the format and, while the WTA insists the circuit is always under review, its chair Steve Simon also believes the structure does not increase seems, as Swiatek basically said, everyone will just have to get on with it. Emma Raducanu again had Mark Petchey in her coaching box at the Madrid Open. The British number two says she is happy with the "informal" arrangement". Will Carlos Alcaraz be fit enough to defend his French Open men's singles title? The injured Spaniard hopes so, but is unsure whether he will be able to play beforehand after pulling out of strange times continue for Novak Djokovic. The 37-year-old says losing his opening match of a tournament for the second time in a row is his "new reality". While the rankings are not updated until after Madrid, the live standings show a few interesting Diana Shnaider is set to reach a new career high - and could break into the top 10 for the first time - if she goes deeper than the last the men's rankings, Russia's Andrev Rublev will drop out of the top 10 after his Madrid title defence ended in the last 32, while Italy's Lorenzo Musetti is provisionally into the top 10 for the first time. Most eyes this week will remain on the latter stages of the Madrid prizes will be handed out at the weekend, with the women's singles final on Saturday and the men's on will also increase over the coming days on another big story - Jannik Sinner's the men's world number one, is set to make his return from a three-month doping ban at next week's Italian Open. World number six Jack Draper has led the British charge at the Madrid Open and was one of three men to reach the last Norrie has found a timely return form after winning his first ATP main-draw matches since Indian Wells, while Jacob Fearnley - playing only his second tour-level clay-court event - came through three British women who directly entered the main draw - Katie Boulter, Raducanu and Sonay Kartal - all won their opening matches before falling in the second Jones fought through qualifying to reach the first round where - playing for the third straight day - she lost a tight battle to 2024 Australian Open semi-finalist Dayana playing alongside Daria Kasatkina, lost in the doubles first round, as did Olivia Nicholls with partner Tereza Mihalikova. What is Second Serve? With so many professional tennis tournaments taking place across the world, and across so many levels, it can be hard to keep up with everything from one week to the part of BBC Sport's commitment to offer more for tennis fans, Second Serve will be your weekly round-up of the biggest stories in the well as the main talking point, you can see which ATP and WTA players are making significant progress - or struggling for form, how the British contingent are doing and what the next stops on the calendars can also sign up to get the latest tennis news from BBC Sport delivered straight to your mobile phone.
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Second Serve: Your weekly tennis briefing
In the latest edition of Second Serve, our new weekly snapshot of the tours, BBC tennis reporter Jonathan Jurejko looks at the key talking points before the European clay-court season. There is no escaping the fact that age is catching up with Novak his 38th birthday fast approaching, the evidence shows the 24-time Grand Slam champion's powers are as the men's clay-court season begins in Monte Carlo, Djokovic looks in a much better place than a fortnight runner-up in Miami to Czech teenager Jakub Mensik showed that the world number five is not ready to roll into retirement yet."There is no doubt that [motivation] has become more difficult throughout my career but the performances in Miami give me more inspiration to keep going," Djokovic Serb veteran knows his serve needs to be potent if he is going to challenge at the upcoming French Open and to rely as much on physicality against his younger opponents, Djokovic wants the accuracy of his opening shot - an underrated part of his game - to help limit the baseline saw the effectiveness in on precision rather than power, he landed 79% of first serves - including a career-high 87% in the semi-final against Grigor Dimitrov - and only faced seven break points in his opening five matches."Now I know what it's like to be John Isner," he joked after beating has not won a major since the 2023 US Open and claimed only one title last season - albeit the Olympic gold he had long came on the Roland Garros clay, where he aims to win a standalone 25th Grand Slam title in other priority is becoming only the third man to claim a 100th tour-level singles will, however, have to come through a strong field in Monte Carlo, with 17 of the top 20 players competing. Britain's Jack Draper is one of them, with Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz among the favourites. Emma Raducanu pulled out of the Great Britain squad for this week's Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers to "look after her body". The world's leading players wrote to the four Grand Slams asking for more prize money. Britain's Francesca Jones collapsed during a match in Colombia. She later said her heart had "worked a little too hard". What a time for Jessica Pegula to win the first clay-court title of her Sunday, the American claimed the Charleston Open title, beating 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin to reach a career-high ranking of third in the rated as one of the best players never to have won a major, has won 17 of her past 19 matches. Another American success saw world number 507 Jenson Brooksby win the first ATP title of his career in Houston - having been given a qualifying 23, is the third lowest-ranked ATP champion as he continues his not playing last week, Draper reached a new career high, with Italian pair Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi - who won the Bucharest and Marrakech titles - climbing the highest in the top 100. The WTA Tour pauses for a week as the top players represent their nations in the Billie Jean King week's qualifying phase sees six groups of three nations compete in a round-robin format for a place in the season-ending eight-team Britain, who reached the semi-finals last year, are aiming to be one of the group winners who directly progress to November's finals in year's runners-up Slovakia, the United States, Canada and Australia are also competing, while reigning champions Italy and hosts China have automatically qualified. Most of the leading British players have been back at the National Tennis Centre over the past week to prepare for the clay-court and Jacob Fearnley were seen perfecting their sliding techniques - a key skill on clay - while a behind-the-scenes LTA video showed Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal practising on the surface before the BJK Cup tie in the Watson and Harriet Dart have already competed on clay after playing in Charleston, although both lost their first-round matches. Cameron Norrie has also been in action, but the former world number eight lost to Italy's Mattia Bellucci in Monte Carlo doubles, former world number one Jamie Murray reached the semi-finals of an ATP 250 event in Bucharest, while Emily Appleton made her third semi-final of the season at a WTA 125 event in Bogota. What is Second Serve? With so many professional tennis tournaments taking place across the world, and across so many levels, it can be hard to keep up with everything from one week to the part of BBC Sport's commitment to offer more for tennis fans, Second Serve will be your weekly round-up of the biggest stories in the well as the main talking point, you can see which ATP and WTA players are making significant progress - or struggling for form, how the British contingent are doing and what the next stops on the calendars can also sign up to get the latest tennis news from BBC Sport delivered straight to your mobile phone.
