By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, June 21, 2025
Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty
Jack Draper’s screen play precipitated painful Queen’s Club climax.
The British No. 1 smashed his racquet against the court-side screen—breaking his Dunlop racquet and bloodying his knee in the process—during his 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 Queen’s Club semifinal loss to Jiri Lehecka today.
Draper dropped serve to fall behind 5-6 in the decider then unleashed his inner David Nalbandian smashing his Dunlop stick off the court-side ad screen.
The rampage wrecked his racquet turned the red screen black and left Draper tending to a bloody right knee on the changeover. Draper, who belted a ball out of Andy Murray Arena in anger earlier in the match, incurred a code violation warning for his Jack Attack on the signage.
Afterward, Draper revealed he has been battling tonsillitis and said his emotions erupted.
“When you’re not feeling great, when your energy is really low, you use everything you can to get yourself up,” Draper told the media at Queen’s Club. “I’m almost getting angry to get fired up. When you do that, when you give everything you have, not just in tennis, like in anything, you’re obviously a bit less mellow and playing a bit more on a tightrope.
“So when you try your best and things don’t go your way, it’s easy to spill over. That’s what happened out there.
“Like I said, I don’t want to behave like that, in all honesty, but that’s just the way I sort of am as a competitor. Sometimes I just play on a bit of a tightrope. I don’t want to be behaving like that, yeah.”
The Indian Wells champion said he’s been depleted battling tonsillitis.
“It had been developing over the week. I have been trying to recover and stuff, but the body, when you have something like that, doesn’t really want to play 2 hour 20 matches in the heat,” Draper said of his illness. “You know, it’s probably not good for you, so you’re not going to feel better.
“I mean, today’s probably the worst I have felt. Did I think about withdrawing? No, not at all. I’m in the semifinals at Queen’s. I’d probably go on court with a broken leg.
“I wouldn’t have pulled out for anything. So I went out there, gave all I had, and I can be very proud of that. And also, it’s not an excuse. It’s just the way I feel, you know. I think I lost today because I lost to a better tennis player. He was better than me in the key moments. He served better. I think he was a bit braver at times.”
Jiri let’s our a BIG roar on match point 🗣️#HSBCChampionships https://t.co/prTFSFmWBr pic.twitter.com/o6lryE2Fru
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 21, 2025
World No. 30 Lehecka is the first Czech man to reach a tour-level final on lawn since Tomas Berdych swept Novak Djokovic to reach the 2010 Wimbledon final. Lehecka is the first Czech since Ivan Lendl in 1990 to reach the Queen’s Club final. Lehecka will face either two-time Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz or Roberto Bautista Agut in tomorrow’s title match.
