Britain’s Jack Draper could not fail to hide his immense disappointment after his shock Wimbledon second-round exit at the hands of 36-year-old Marin Cilic, conceding: “I really struggle on grass.” 

Draper, who entered the tournament this year as a lofty fourth seed and heavily fancied to challenge, was beaten 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-4 by the Croatian on Court One.

Cilic had failed to play at Wimbledon since 2021 due to a serious and recurring knee injury, yet he bested the Brit 13 years his junior.

“I’ve been really disappointed with the way my game’s been on the grass this year, in all honesty,” Draper told media following the defeat.

“I wasn’t feeling too great at Queen’s. I don’t know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final.

“It highlighted to me this year that I really struggle on the grass. I felt great on the hard court, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn’t many holes, whereas as soon as I came onto the grass I felt a big difference.

“It’s just something I’ve got to keep in mind, how I’m going to develop my game for the long term for next year, just to get better as a player.

“For sure it’s highlighted a lot of weaknesses in my game, especially against a player the way he was playing today, someone as good as him on the grass.”

Asked to expand on what weaknesses the grasscourt exposes in his game, Draper replied: “I think the hole in my forehand showed up, for sure. I wasn’t able to deal with his pace of ball into my forehand. I was over-spinning a lot.

“I think a lot of my success this year with my forehand, when I have more time, it’s a lot easier for me because I can create the speed and the spin that I want, and the effectiveness of that.

“Obviously my movement could have been better. There’s many areas of my game which I still really, really need to work on to be the player I want to be.

“I want to feel like everything in my game is secure. I think that’s what you see with the top guys. They’re so consistent all the time because there’s no holes in their game.

“The last couple of weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I’ve had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I’ve still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game.

“In some ways that’s exciting, and in some ways that’s hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was.”

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