Jack Draper lost in the final of the Qatar Open in Doha to Andrey Rublev as his remarkable rise continues also amid the recent injuries which saw him return with a bang and Jack Sock was full of praise for the Brit.
He is now at a career high of World No.12 and he said that he doesn’t see why Draper can’t find his way into the top 10 by the US Open. He reached the semi-final last US Open and has emerged from being injury ridden to being a major player.
“I think so,” Sock said on the Nothing Major Podcast which also includes Sam Querrey. “He plays a massive game. Lefties are always tough to play. The guy serves cannons and hits the ball huge from the baseline. Seems to have an all court dynamic, as he’s comfortable moving in.”
“I think when he is firing on all cylinders, he can compete with everybody out there pretty much and it seems like he has a little bit more of some up and down results than some of the guys ranked around there. But if you are already 12 in the world, I mean why not keep going and slide into the top 10 here by US Open or Fall?”
He also spoke about when he played him and whether he believed he would get to the point that he is now. But he analysed what he was like when he was younger and he played him in California while he was still on the tour.
“Not when I played him. I probably wasn’t at my best at that time,” said Sock. “I wasn’t even sure how old he was at the time. I had heard about him a little before that.
“But he was a lefty and serving every ball to my backhand. We were playing in random Northern California. I thought his good moments during the match were very impressive but it was kind of a rollercoaster out there, he was good for a few games and then at the time pretty shocking for a few games.
“Obviously he has buttoned that all up and got much more physical as well. I think he can only keep moving forward, he is clearly showing it month in and month out. He got the better of me there in North Cal and he went this way [up] and I went this way [down].”
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