Jamie Murray has backed Jack Draper to win Grand Slam titles, despite his recent disappointment at the French Open.
The British tennis star was knocked out in the fourth round at Roland Garros as he suffered a 5-7 6-3 6-2 6-4 defeat to world number 62 Alexander Bublik.
GettyJack Draper exited his second consecutive Grand Slam at the fourth round stage[/caption]Draper’s Grand Slam exit meant he missed out on a quarter-final clash with the top-ranked Jannik Sinner, who he lost to in last year’s US Open semi-finals.
Despite the loss however, the 23-year-old’s run to the round of 16 in Paris was actually his best-ever run in Paris.
In his two previous appearances at the clay court major, Draper has been knocked out in the first round, highlighting his meteoric rise of late.
The Brit has enjoyed a breakthrough year since his run to the semi-finals of the US Open, which has seen him climb to no.5 in the world rankings.
And while his progress has been remarkable, Draper’s recent disappointment highlighted how far he has still to go to catch up with his peers Jannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner and Alcaraz have emerged as tennis’ dominant duo, winning the past five Grand Slams between them.
This was something Draper was quick to point out following his loss to Bublik, who admitted he feels he has a lot of catching up to do to compete at the two stars’ level.
Speaking after his French Open defeat, Draper said: “I’m a long way behind those boys. I still have lots to learn
“They’re probably a year or two years ahead of me and have obviously achieved a lot more.
“If you look at how many ATP matches they’ve played, they’ve played double the amount I have.
Bublik reached his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final with victory over Draper GettySinner is bidding to land his fourth Grand Slam title[/caption] Alcaraz has won four major titles and is the defending champion at Roland GarrosGetty“I do have a lot to do to catch up with them.”
With his early career hampered by injuries, Draper has much less Grand Slam experience than both Sinner and Alcaraz.
He also has just 168 Tour-level matches under his belt compared to Sinner’s 356 and Alcaraz’s 300.
And while the British no.1 was keen to stress how far he has still to go to join tennis’ elite pair, seven-time doubles Grand Slam champion Jamie Murray insisted there is still plenty to be positive about.
Speaking on talkSPORT Breakfast, the elder Murray brother said of Draper: “He’s 23 years old and he’s five in the world. He’s four in the race.
“He’s doing incredible. He is Britain’s next tennis superstar. There’s no ifs or buts about that.”
Draper clinched his first ever Masters 1000 title with victory in Indian Wells in MarchGettyDespite tipping Draper for greatness, Murray agreed with the young star’s assessment of his current position in relation to his tour rivals.
He continued: “I think Jack’s right in what he says. Maybe he is one or two years behind Sinner and Alcaraz in his development.
“For sure he hasn’t played as many matches on the ATP Tour as those guys have over the last four or five years. They’ve won multiple Grand Slams and they’ve been cleaning up between the two of them recently, it feels like.
“But he will get there. Right now he’s showing signs that he will potentially go on to be the best of the rest at the moment.”
Draper’s incredible ascent has sparked genuine hope that he could become Britain’s first men’s singles Grand Slam champion since Jamie’s brother, Andy, something which the doubles star agreed with.
Murray continued: “I think he can win Grand Slams. I absolutely think that.
Murray backed Draper for huge success in the future“It will obviously be a huge challenge because he’s going to be going up against Alcaraz and Sinner and he’s going to have to beat one if not two of them to win Grand Slams.
“But I think that on his career path, that’s where he’s heading, and let’s see where it goes on his journey.
“I’m excited to follow him and like we said, he’s still very inexperienced and in relative terms to a lot of these guys.
“And he’s doing so well and I think everyone should be getting excited about him, getting behind him and supporting him as much as they possibly can, because he will do good things and he will be around the top of the game for a very long time.”
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