Jack Draper is not ‘the next Andy Murray’ but he can emulate his friend and idol at US Open

British tennis may never see another Murray, who was already the world No 4 at Draper’s age, but the Scot’s successor is starting to show signs of grand-slam winning quality at the US Open

ack Draper and Andy Murray are both tennis players, but that’s just about where the likeness stops. At 22, Murray was still feeling his way into the spotlight after reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon, painted at the time as some kind of misanthrope, an implacable grump. By contrast Draper, who plays in his first grand slam semi-final on Friday, is embracing the fame. “I quite enjoy being in front of the camera,” he told British Vogue while doing a cover shoot this summer. “If I’m looking good, that is.”

Draper posed in checked coats and leather jackets with curls of hair bouncing off his forehead like Danny Zuko, one of his many hairstyles. “I’ve done a buzzcut, a mohawk, a mullet…” Meanwhile, Murray was recently asked what advice he’d give to his younger self. “Get a haircut,” he replied. “And get some clothes that fit.”

And yet for all their differences, there is an obvious and irresistable link. Murray’s third piece of advice to himself was to enjoy tennis before it’s gone. Now it is gone, and as Draper became the first British man to reach the last four of a slam since Murray at the French Open in 2017, there was an unmistakable sense of the torch being passed.

Draper thrashed the world No 10 Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals of the US Open and said he was immensely proud to be following in the footsteps of his friend and an “icon of the game” in Murray. “I miss him in the changing rooms. I miss being next to his stinky shoes and all of his stinky clothes. Andy is a legend. If I have half the career that he’s had then I’ll be a happy man.”

Draper’s rise was somewhat different to Murray, who grew up in Dunblane and moved to Barcelona as a teenager. He is the son of the former Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger Draper and Nicky Draper, a British junior champion. He attended the private Reed’s School in Surrey and was coached from a young age, developing a powerful left-handed serve and forehand despite being naturally right-handed.