British world No. 4 Jack Draper shared his thoughts following his second-round match at Wimbledon. He suffered a surprising defeat to 36-year-old Croatian veteran Marin Čilić, with the match concluding 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6.
“I`m very disappointed,” Draper stated. “This is probably one of the toughest losses of my career. Today, Čilić played an incredible match from start to finish. He truly deserved the win; he didn`t give up at all.”
Draper also expressed frustration with his performance on grass courts this season. “I`m very disappointed with my grass-court game this year. At the Queen`s [Club] tournament, I didn`t feel great at all. I honestly don`t know how I even managed to reach the semi-finals there.”
“I`ve encountered numerous problems on grass this year,” he continued. “I felt really good playing on clay, but as soon as I made the transition to grass, I noticed a significant difference immediately.”
“It`s not about pressure,” Draper clarified. “I simply didn`t play well enough today.”
Regarding his opponent, Draper commented, “As for Čilić, I wasn`t surprised by his level of play. He is undoubtedly one of the great players who has won a Grand Slam title. Today, he was simply much better than I was,” Draper concluded during his post-match press conference.
Gilbert Pendleton