Breathe Easy: Draper's small change yields big results

Jack Draper will hope to rouse one last burst of energy on Saturday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

Into the championship match on event debut at the hard-court ATP 500, Draper believes he has recently added a crucial component to his game, one that may well benefit him if his title match against Andrey Rublev proves to be a lung-buster under the Doha floodlights: In the offseason, the Briton worked with a breathing coach to improve his respiratory efficiency.

“Historically, I had a lot of problems with my sinuses when I was younger, and I suppose in tennis, in sport, we're always trying to look for the small percentages,” Draper told ATPTour.com in Doha. “I've realised over time that of course I need to focus on my physical improvements. That's got better, and my physicality and everything has got better, but I felt like still sometimes I would get out of breath, or when I'm a bit anxious, I'd really struggle still.

“So I started to look into more of the other reasons potentially why and one of them was I've always had problems with my sinuses, so could it be that my breathing is maybe non-efficient? I realised that I was a real mouth breather, and so I looked into how I could start to maybe change functionally the way I breathe.”

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Draper endured a frustrating offseason after enjoying a career-best year in 2024. He suffered from a back issue that disrupted his training and ultimately forced him to withdraw from the season-opening United Cup, but he did not rest on his laurels. Instead, he started working with a breathing coach, who helped him better understand his respiratory system.

“There are still lots of improvements to come, but I worked a lot on trying to breathe through my diaphragm and my nose instead of breathing through my mouth, because you can't get enough oxygen in that way,” explained Draper. “So especially when we're out on court and we're playing long points and it's hot and stressful, it's just trying to learn how to breathe more efficiently for your body to work at a high level.”

The benefits of Draper’s improved breathing are not just physical. They also help him preserve energy to stay mentally focused for longer periods.

“At the end of the day, if you're out of breath, or if you're anxious or stressed, then you have to have ways of being able to calm yourself down,” said the Briton. “If you can calm yourself down, and if you can stay in the present, you're more able to focus on what you're actually doing, instead of just getting back to feeling okay. That obviously helps massively mentally. You're just not fighting yourself as much, and you know that you can do it.

“It's something that I'm just more aware of the whole time. It's like a way of trying to remain present. I think the best players in the world, they're able to be present more of the time than others and not let the winning points and the unforced errors and all that affect them so much. It's just, ‘We keep going, keep going, keep going’. I think that stuff, and along with other things like my routines, just makes me stay in the present more, and I'm able to compete better for every point.”

Draper did not have to wait long to put his improvements to the test. In his first event of the season, January’s Australian Open, the 23-year-old came back from two-sets-to-one down to triumph in three consecutive matches. They included two victories in cauldron-like Melbourne atmospheres against home favourites Thanasi Kokkinakis and Aleksandar Vukic. On both occasions, Draper appeared to build gradually into his engagement with the naturally partisan crowd, something he believes is an underappreciated aspect of performing on big stages.

“They were such long matches, and we were out there for such long time,” recalled Draper of his four-hour, 35-minute battle with Kokkinakis and his near-four-hour clash against Vukic. “I tried for a while not to get involved too much [with the crowd], but as a player, you've got to understand as well when you need the energy from the crowd, even if they're against you.

“I think there was a moment late in the fourth set against Kokkinakis when I started to lose my way a little bit, and I started to become flat. That's when I started to rile myself up and rile the crowd up and just try and use their negative energy to help me. I really enjoyed it.

“Even against Vukic, I think I got booed off the court [at a bathroom break] in the third set. Instead of going in the changing room and being like, ‘I’m two-sets-to-one down, I’ve played two five-set matches and I'm going to have to come back again’, I was like, ‘They just booed me off the court. I'm not losing this match’. I think I really enjoyed it, and I know that whoever was there watching, even if they were supporting against me, they would have enjoyed it as well.”

Competing this week as the No. 16 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Draper is guaranteed to rise to a career-high No. 12 on Monday thanks to his Doha run so far, and to No. 11 if he defeats Rublev in Saturday’s final. Prevailing from a stacked Qatar ExxonMobil Open field would be the second statement title run within five months for the lefty, who won his maiden ATP 500 trophy in Vienna last October, although he is taking nothing for granted given where he was just weeks ago.

“I believe at this level, if you're not fully on your game, then you can lose any match,” said Draper, who is 0-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Rublev. “So even though I'm feeling good about my tennis, I have had a bit of a difficult couple of months with an injury. But I'm getting my level back on the practice court, and I'm feeling good about my body and my mind. I think I just need competition.”