Draper: Breathing exercises key to staying calm, boosting strength in long matches
The British No 1 came through a third straight five-set battle to reach the last 16 at the Australian Open
© Vincent Thian/AP/SIPA
For the first few years of his career, Jack Draper was always looked at as a big talent. But his ability to last the distance, to battle it out until the end of matches, was in question. Often he looked tired early on and fitter, stronger players got the better of him. Things have changed.
At this year’s Australian Open, the Briton has won three straight five-setters, the most recent a three-hour, 58 minute epic that ended just before 1am, a gruelling victory over a pugnacious Aleksandar Vukic. The 23-year-old has become a force to be reckoned with in long matches and in the early hours of Saturday morning, he explained part of why that is.
“I think there’s always been that sort of question mark in my head over five-set matches, and am I able to do it?,” he told a small group of British reporters. “From a mental part of side of things and physical as well, is my body going to hold up?”
Draper’s strength in the five-setters has been remarkable, also, because he missed a couple of weeks of training in December due to a hip injury. But he put that time to good use, he said.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of work in general over time,” he said. “It seems like maybe by having that time off with my hip, I was able to focus on working on a few different things.
“I was working a lot with a breathing coach and just trying to understand that a bit better. I’ve always had problems with my sinuses. So I think that’s really helping in general, staying a lot calmer, not being too uptight. I think that’s helping me to go for longer.”
Sinus issues mean Draper breathes through his mouth
Draper said he had sinus issues when he was young, to the extent where he breathes through his mouth. Changing that is not easy, but he’s working on it.
“Obviously when you are anxious or when you have long points and you have to recover quickly, it’s not efficient to breathe through your mouth,” he said. “So I’ve been trying to reverse what I do and breathe through my nose a lot better and a lot more.
“I think sometimes you don’t realise how sort of uptight your body is. Especially me, because I’ve always been someone who likes to try hard, and I think sometimes it’s just you have to relax. Especially in tennis, because you need to be free to let your muscles do what they need to do. Obviously if you’re tense the whole time, you’re not going to last too long.”
Alcaraz battle will be different from Queen’s match
Draper takes on Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round on Sunday. But though he beat the Spaniard at Queen’s Club last summer, the left-hander said he is not going to be lulled into any pretense that he has the world No 3’s number.
“The grass obviously is a win, but I think he just came off the French Open and had a bit of time off,” he saod. I had just won Stuttgart, and the grass is a completely different ball game.”
“We obviously played in Basel. We played in Indian Wells. I was injured there. I know what to expect from him. He’s going to come out with a lot of energy, and obviously he’s a special talent, like I’ve said.
“I need to be aggressive. I need to take my chances. Against the top players you get less and less chances to win games and sets and all these sort of things. I need to be brave in the way I play, but I’m expecting him to come out and know that I’ve played three five-setters and know that he’s got a battle on his hands, and he’s going to have to play good. It will be a great contest, I’m sure.”
