Jack Draper has enjoyed a remarkable start to life on the ATP Tour, having just concluded this year ranked inside the top ten.
And yet, he will likely not look back upon 2025 with great fondness.
Despite winning his maiden Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells, the last 11 months have once again been impacted by injury, with the Brit struggling throughout Wimbledon before sitting out the summer and then withdrawing midway through the US Open.
Then forced to cut his season short, many have begun fearing for the Brit heading into the new year.
Where will Jack Draper be ranked by the end of 2026?
Fortunately, Jack Draper can take great solace when looking back on how Andy Murray’s career started, if he hopes to follow in his footsteps.
Jack Draper can take solace in early-career Andy Murray injuries
Despite his struggles, one WTA star is still backing Draper to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Naturally, this marks an almighty task, but no tougher than the one Murray managed when forcing his way into Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal’s supremacy.
What should give Draper so much hope heading into the new year and beyond, despite his huge physical issues, is the fact that the 38-year-old suffered too when he first burst onto the scene.
2006, his first season on tour, saw him suffer from neck injuries. Then, in the years to come, it was revealed that he actually had bones that hadn’t fully grown, causing him to suffer from back problems.
2009 was marred by a wrist ailment, before he battled through an elbow injury in 2011 to win his first-ever Grand Slam title.
If Draper can forge the same unflinching, unrelenting mindset, Murray has shown that anything is possible, even with persistent injury worries.
Jack Draper’s dream of winning Wimbledon
To truly follow in Murray’s footsteps, Draper will know that he has to win Wimbledon.
However, whilst the Scotsman struggled to deal with the incredible burden of being Britain’s best hope at ending a 77‑year drought, his young replacement arguably has the even tougher task of following in his footsteps.
After all, the weight of expectation to be his immediate successor is overwhelming, despite the 22-year-old often trying to quieten those claims.
At Wimbledon earlier this year, Draper admitted: “I’m not trying to be the next Andy Murray … he’s one of the greatest players there ever was and ever will be, and to put that level of pressure on myself, I just don’t do it. I focus on achieving my own potential, whatever that looks like.”
Rate Jack Draper’s 2025 season out of 10
And yet, it’s clear that winning the title at the All-England Club would be his ultimate goal, later adding: “I love Wimbledon. If there’s any tournament I want to play my best, there’s any tournament that I want to win, it’s this one, so I’m going to do everything in my power and everything in my control to get to that point.”
Draper has had a meteoric but tough start to life on the ATP Tour. Fortunately, so too did Murray, and he did quite well for himself in the end…
