Jack Draper's Wimbledon Dreams Dashed Again
No one really saw this coming—Wimbledon’s top British hope, Jack Draper, is out. The No4 seed bowed out in the second round, beaten 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 by Marin Cilic. For Draper, the pattern just won’t break: for another year, the home crowd’s favorite is left packing before the weekend. People showed up hoping he’d finally make that deep run, but the same old grass-court demons showed up instead.
Draper's season on grass hasn’t been sparkling, even though he made it to the Queen’s Club semi-final a couple of weeks before. But things didn’t click on Centre Court against a 36-year-old veteran who was supposed to be the underdog—at least on paper.
It’s not just an ordinary loss for Draper. He’s the British No1, seeded highly, and still he just can’t get comfortable on his home surface. Draper opened up about his disappointment, saying, 'I've been really disappointed with the way my game’s been on the grass this year.' Sometimes players make that classic grass-court adjustment, but he’s still searching for the magic that will let him go beyond the second round. He’s now played Wimbledon three times—and has never made it to week two. When pressure really mounts, expectations and reality can collide, and for Draper, the collision was loud and early.
Cilic’s Comeback: Four Years Away, Now Back and Firing
On the flip side, this was Marin Cilic’s story. You might remember him as the 2017 Wimbledon finalist—the lanky Croatian who pushed Roger Federer in one of those classic Sunday finals. But since then? He’s been out of sight. Injuries, surgeries—two knee ops that kept him stuck on the sidelines, missing entire seasons, including the last three Wimbledons. At 36, most players talk retirement, not fresh starts. But Cilic roared onto No1 Court like he'd never left, sending down 16 aces and flattening Draper with a total of 53 winners. That’s some comeback.
Cilic hadn’t beaten a top-five player on grass—ever—until now. To fire his way through the British No1, who was riding high off a Queen’s run and a big seeding, was something few would’ve predicted. After the match, Cilic didn’t hold back on what it meant: 'To come back to play at this level, in front of this crowd, against Jack, it’s just incredible.'
- First Wimbledon match since 2021 for Cilic
- Two major knee operations in the last three years
- His first win over a top-five player on grass in a long career
To say the win electrified the crowd is an understatement. Cilic, who at times looked done for good, suddenly looks dangerous again. The old serve is still humming. He’ll head into the third round with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
For Draper, it’s another year waiting for that crucial Wimbledon breakthrough—and a reminder that at the Championships, nothing is certain, no matter your ranking or your hopes. But for Cilic, this tournament just became his own personal Wimbledon resurrection tour. There’s still life left in the old guard.
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