Jack Draper & Cam Norrie reflect on Roland Garros runs ahead of busy grass court season

Draper came into the French Open having never won a match at Roland Garros and this time around, leaves with a trio of wins over Mattia Bellucci, Gael Monfils and Joao Fonseca before he eventually lost out to an inspired Alexander Bublik in four sets. 

British No.1 Draper’s game on clay has come on leaps and bounds this year, with a final run in Madrid and strong results in Rome that have seen him rise inside the world’s top five – amongst the likes of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. 

Understandably the fifth seed was disappointed to be knocked out, despite Bublik’s incredible performance, but Draper is still able to reflect on what has been a big step forward in his career during the clay court swing. 

“I don't think I've reached my best level this week,” Draper said in his post match press conference. “Today there was just a couple of dips here and there, and he took advantage. Usually when you play someone like Alexander, he's quite up and down with his level, but he was completely locked in.  

“This is another one of those tough matches. I'll learn from it, and I'll get better, and I'll use it to my advantage. 

“I struggle to put things in perspective, but I think I am proud of the effort that I've done on the clay. I think I've really improved.  

“I think last year I was leaving here, first round loss, being 40 in the world and very disappointed with my tennis and not sure, you know, where I was going with it.  

“This year I'm leaving No.5 in the world. I've made the fourth round. I'm playing consistently really good tennis week in and week out.  

“I always use the lessons from my losses. I always use the fuel and the hurt to better myself.” 

Draper will now get to switch his attention to the grass court season – a surface where he won his first ATP title at the Boss Open last year and one that is much more suited to his big lefty game. 

The 23-year-old is scheduled to play at the HSBC Championships later in the summer, where last year he dealt two-time Wimbledon champion Alcaraz his only loss on grass over the last two seasons. 

“Although I'm obviously gutted to have lost today and stuff, I'm going to be very happy to get off the clay,” he added. “I'm really, really proud of my ability to have adapted and to accept the challenge of being on the clay. I was thinking coming into it that I'm going to really show myself this year on the clay and do well. 

“I'll be happy to get on a faster surface, a surface that I'm much more comfortable moving on. Yeah, I look forward to being back home, being on the grass, for sure.” 

Meanwhile, for former world No.8 Norrie, he’ll be hoping that his first run to the last 16 in Paris – including a win over Daniil Medvedev – can be a spark for his season heading onto the grass. 

Norrie lost out against three-time champion Djokovic in the fourth round, but the British No.3 was overall positive about a strong end to his clay court season, where he also made the semi-finals in Geneva. 

“It was a lot of fun playing (at Roland Garros), and all the matches were so tough, so different,” Norrie said. “Djokovic just did the basics much better than me today, the fundamental serve and return, and he was much sharper than me. 

"It was for me a really enjoyable clay season. I think I counted when I was on the bike after the match I played 20 clay court matches, and for me that's huge.  

"The way for me to gain confidence is playing and then actually getting through some tough matches. I won a lot of tie-breaks recently, so I can take so much confidence from this and momentum.  

“I think that's the biggest thing. It's been really tricky to gain momentum. It was a lot of fun playing Geneva and finding my form at the very end of the clay season. So that was really good.” 

Norrie is a former Wimbledon semi-finalist and has made the final at The Queen’s Club over the past few years, so he knows a thing or two about playing on the grass. 

Now with that added momentum behind him, Norrie is eagerly looking forward to getting back to on home soil for one of his favourite parts of the calendar. 

“It's a really enjoyable part of the season for me being back in the UK,” he said. “I'm not spending too much time there anymore, so it's going to be nice to kind of go back and have the home-crowd advantage in those tournaments, and Queen's is one of my favourite tournaments. 

“It's going to be a nice feeling to be back in London, and hopefully the weather is decent, not too many hard court matches, and play someone on the grass will be good.”