The Albany Gazette - Draper ready to take lead for British tennis

Draper this month became the first British man to reach the US Open semi-finals since Murray won the title there 12 years ago.

The 22-year-old lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner of Italy, who described his beaten opponent as a future Grand Slam champion.

Draper took over as Britain's men's number one for the first time in June this year, just over a month before Murray retired at the Paris Olympics.

Draper says he is ready to fill the gap left by the three-time Grand Slam title winner.

"I see it as a responsibility to be the person who's performing," Draper said after moving into the Japan Open quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over number two seed Hubert Hurkacz on Friday.

"Andy has had a lot of success over a long period of time, and my biggest respect for him was that he did that with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, especially around Wimbledon time.

"I see it as a responsibility to achieve great things for myself and for British tennis," he added.

Murray famously ended Britain's 77-year wait for a men's champion at Wimbledon when he beat Novak Djokovic in the 2013 final.

He added a second Wimbledon title in 2016 and also won the US Open in 2012 and Olympic gold in both 2012 and 2016.

- 'Fulfill my potential' -

Draper won his first career ATP title in Stuttgart in June, and said Friday that it was "a tough thing trying to be the next Andy Murray".

"I'm not thinking of achieving what he's achieved because I think that would be unrealistic right now," said Draper.

"I'm going to try and do everything I can to fulfil my potential, whatever that looks like.

"If that is winning Grand Slams and being one of the best players in the world, then amazing."

Draper is now ranked number 20 in the world but he was outside the top 100 when he played at the Japan Open a year ago.

He suffered multiple shoulder injuries last year and missed huge chunks of the season, including most of the clay swing and all of the grass court season.

He was forced onto the second-tier Challenger circuit but he says the experience made him into the player he is today.

"It was kind of a blessing in disguise because I needed to look at myself, look at my physicality, work on my mentality as well, because I wasn't ready to be a top player," he said.

"In the last year I think I've done everything right. I've really focused on everything that I can control."

Draper, who will play either American Brandon Nakashima or France's Ugo Humbert next in Tokyo, said "it's never really been about the tennis for me".

"It's always been about developing the right mindset and developing my body to become robust to play on the tour week in, week out," he said.

(R.White--TAG)