Jack Draper heads to Wimbledon as British number one, seeded for the first time, and riding the crest of a wave after winning his maiden ATP title.
The 22-year-old even beat defending SW19 champion Carlos Alcaraz on his way to the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club.
His seven-match winning streak – which encompassed that title success in Stuttgart – was eventually ended by American world number 13 Tommy Paul.
But that takes nothing away from how Draper, who admitted to being “all over the place” after his first-round exit at the French Open last month, has swiftly rebuilt his game and his confidence.
Suddenly the son of former LTA chief Roger Draper looks ready to take over from Andy Murray as the jewel in the nation’s tennis crown.
“I think if you want to be a top, top player in the world, you have to back up results week by week, day by day,” he said.
“You know you’re in a great place and you’re one of the best players in the world when you’re able to do that, because every day we’re facing amazing tennis players who can beat you.
“So if you’re not quite on your game you lose the match because the other guy plays well and he beats you.
“That’s kind of the next stage for me now. I want to try and go deep in tournaments and back it up every week. These are just things I have to probably get used to at the highest level and learn.
“I’m still young. I’m trying to piece a lot of things together. Obviously that was my first title – I’ve done it at challenger level and futures, but it’s very different on the main tour. I just need probably a bit more time.”
Draper is the one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy outlook among the top British men.
The participation of Murray, in what would be his final Championships, is in doubt after the two-time winner’s injury at Queen’s, a tournament which also accounted for Dan Evans due to a slip on the court.
Cameron Norrie, ranked eighth in the world 18 months ago, is now set to find himself outside the top 40 after losing nine of his last 15 matches, including first-round exits at the French Open and Queen’s and a defeat at Nottingham by world number 773 Jack Pinnington Jones.
Among the wild cards picking up a first-round pay day of £60,000, the usual suspects include Liam Broady, Arthur Fery, Paul Jubb and Jan Choinski.
They are joined by last year’s junior champion Henry Searle, of whom big things are expected in the future.
Then there is Billy Harris, the 29-year-old journeyman from Nottingham who until recently travelled to tournaments, and slept, in a converted transit van.
Prior to Queen’s, Harris’ total career prize money was £230,000, but his surprise run to the quarter-finals coupled with his Wimbledon wild card earned him £112,000 in three days.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here