Jack Draper’s mother is unlikely to travel to New York if her son reaches Sunday’s US Open final after revealing she would prefer to watch at home with the family dog and a glass of wine.
Draper’s mother, Nicky, has indicated she will stay at her Surrey home rather than make the trip across the pond to watch her son if he can come through his semi-final against Italian top seed Jannik Sinner.
Nicky, a former British junior champion who introduced Draper to tennis as a child, said she had considered travelling to the US but intends to watch her son’s biggest match of his career surrounded by home comforts.
When asked if she would travel to Flushing Meadows, she told BBC Radio 4: “It’s in the back of my mind, but I’ve been watching every match with my dad, with my dog, swearing and cursing, jumping up and down, clapping, having a glass of wine at the same time. I’ve got both of my boys out there, I think they’re doing fine without me. So probably not.”
Draper’s mother previously coached at Sutton Tennis and Squash Club and raised her sons, Ben – who acts as his brother’s agent – in a sporty household with her ex-husband, Roger Draper, who was chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association until 2013.
Sinner, who turned 23 last month, is four months older than Draper and the pair have become friends after growing up together on the junior circuit. They formed a scratch doubles pairing at the Canadian Open last month, where they beat Belgian 16th seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen without dropping a game. It was Draper’s first doubles victory of his senior career.
The pair have only met each other once on tour at a round of 32 meeting at Queens Club in 2021, when Draper got the better of Sinner in two tie-breaks.
“I think they’re quite good friends actually,” said Nicky Draper. “They’ve played some doubles and they’ve shared the odd dinner together. I think Jannik has made Jack some pasta and taught him how to cook pasta. They’re young boys, aren’t they?”
Draper admitted ahead of his quarter-final victory over Alex de Minaur that he had doubts over whether he would make it as a professional tennis player, although his mother insisted her son never properly contemplated quitting the sport.
“I don’t think he seriously thought about giving up,” she said. “Tennis is a brutal sport, you’ve got to train day in day out, you can’t go on holiday and take a break for a few days even, you’ve got to be working on your speed, your agility, your flexibility, your endurance, the mental side. It just never stops.”
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