Questions over how next to rename The Hill can wait another year. Jack Draper, the new hope of British men’s tennis, was taught a grand slam lesson by the veteran Marin Cilic on Court One on Thursday and exits Wimbledon with fresh learnings to take on board in his burgeoning career.
There has been distinct excitement at Draper’s prospects in SW19 this summer after his heady ascent up the ATP rankings and victory at Indian Wells in the spring. That this was only his fourth Wimbledon appearance and that none of his previous outings had gone beyond the second round was not given much credence. But perhaps a lack of experience told here, at least in how Draper managed the match, while the 36-year-old Cilic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2017, revelled in his own on-court Indian summer.
Cilic’s strength of serve is well known and his whipped forehand a deadly weapon. What was less clear was how able the Croat would be to summon those powers after more than two years out of the game dealing with a knee injury that required two rounds of surgery. An omen was to be found in Nottingham last month, when Cilic won the grass court tournament and became the oldest winner ever at an ATP Challenger event (usurping Andy Murray). Here he looked a player who had emerged fully from rehabilitation, and was in fact the more mobile player on court.
The dynamic of the first set had seen the Croat leading the rallies and Draper in dogged pursuit of the ball. It had allowed the 23-year-old to stay in the game, but he was leaving himself little room for error. With the scores at 4-3 Draper had fallen 40-0 down on his serve but somehow clawed his way back to win and it had seemed like an omen for better things for the Brit. At 5-4, however, Cilic tore into Draper again, got to three break points again, and this time converted with a back-hand return winner off an anaemic Draper second serve.
Draper’s head was down, he appeared to be in his own thoughts. In the first point of his first service game in the second set a misjudged back hand slice drifted out of play and Draper shook his head as if the world was against him. Cilic didn’t need to be an expert in body language to read the situation and he raised the power immediately to break serve again. By the time he was 4-2 down Draper was railing against the umpires and the narrow calls dictated by Wimbledon’s AI. It didn’t look good.
The third set saw Draper reset however. The energy returned and with it some execution. With Cilic serving at 1-2 Draper played his best tennis of the match to nullify his opponents impressive attacks and unleash some weapons of his own. A double-handed backhand from deep deservedly sealed the break and with it Draper produced an earnest fist pump. Game on, or at least it felt that way, as he held on easily to claim the third set.
Cilic, who had spoken of coming into this competition with “great confidence” following his return from the tennis abyss, was not paying attention to the narrative however. He stayed calm and in the game, he summoned the strength to maintain the power and controlled placement that had caused Draper so many problems earlier in the match. Lo and behold those problems endured and with the game reaching a decisive point at 5-4 for Cilic he stepped forward again. Missing a drop shot inches from the net in the first point did not rock him and while Draper struggled to find his serve, Cilic found the lines and the corners. Pushing Draper constantly onto his heels the powerful Briton simply could not force the ball over the net. At 30-40 a limp forehand failed to clear the cord and that was that. Cilic broke out into a broad smile.
The ranks of the British men continued to dwindle elsewhere with debutant Jack Pinnington-Jones beaten in straight sets (6-1, 7-6, 6-2) by number 22 seed Flavio Cobolli. After losing the first set in just 22 minutes, the 22-year-old fought back from 5-2 down in the second set to secure a tiebreak only to miss a set point and fall two sets down. The third was easy again for Cobolli who goes on to face the Czech Jakub Mensik. Wildcard qualifier Arthur Fery was also beaten handily – 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 – by another Italian, Luciano Darderi.
