Jack Draper has become the latest seed to go crashing out of Wimbledon, falling in the second round to Marin Cilic.
Draper was backed to go far at Wimbledon, but he couldn’t overcome veteran Cilic, who is ranked 83rd in the world.
British number one Draper was the fourth seed at Wimbledon, while his latest opponent managed to reach the final of the Grand Slam in 2017.
And it was the 36-year-old Croatian who beat the 23-year-old Briton, winning their meeting 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
After his shock loss, the latter has now failed to reach the third round of Wimbledon in all four of his appearances at the All England Club.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty ImagesJack Draper criticised by John McEnroe after Wimbledon exit
And ATP number four Draper has now come under the microscope of tennis legend John McEnroe following his shock defeat.
The American said on BBC: “He has done great. He has got to number four in the world. If I was looking from a distance at Jack I was like why is he standing so far back all the time?
“Especially on hard courts, even on clay. Is he quick enough to cover? Is that what he wants to do? To wear people down that way?
“Forehand has gotten way bigger but to me at Wimbledon you have to cut off those angles. So for me Jack needs to look at what [Taylor] Fritz did those first couple of rounds against two of the biggest serves I have seen. He is standing at the baseline on 150mph serves.
“Jack Draper first round is standing 10 feet behind the baseline on his second serve! I don’t think in the long run that is the way he wants to play at Wimbledon.
“I also think he is a big, strapping, fit guy. He has skills at net. He has this lefty serve, get into net more.
“Serve and volley more often.
“I know I sound like a dinosaur but I think it could be really effective even if he did it a third of the time, not a tenth of the time.
Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images
“It will be interesting to see if he changes that on the hard courts because I think it caught up with him. Let’s take Daniil Medvedev, he is the guy who started that whole thing, standing way back even on grass and hard courts and I think it is catching up to him mentally and physically.
“When you are winning 6-3, 6-3. How much more was [Aleksandar] Vukic running than [Jannik] Sinner just now? How much did [Novak] Djokovic make poor Dan Evans run today? He was running side to side.
“Medvedev was running more than guys he was beating three and three. At some point that catches up to you. I think that will happen with Jack if he is not careful.
“He has to be aware of that. He has enough overall ability but he has to mix it up more and accept that and actually embrace it. I believe he can and indeed he will.”
What John McEnroe noticed about Jack Draper early on before Wimbledon loss to Marin Cilic
Draper was under pressure to perform at Wimbledon from the very start, and his exit will leave many home fans very disappointed.
The player himself will also be very disappointed after coming out on the wrong end of the two-hour, 39-minute battle on Court 1.
Analysing the upset further, tennis icon McEnroe said: “It looked to me early on, I was not watching up close and personal, but Jack looked tight.
“I am not surprised he was tight because a lot of expectations, including from myself, that he could actually challenge and contend for the first time.
“Maybe he thought he could actually do it. That was putting pressure on himself, obviously. And Cilic came to play, he has got a big game!
“Marin is 36 now but his body you have to think is like 40 because he’s had issues. But he didn’t look that way.
“The thing which surprised me is that, he has always had the groundstrokes in a big game, but his court coverage was starting to slip a little bit as time went on.
“But you look at Novak for example and it has to inspire guys like Cilic to think I’m not Novak Djokovic but maybe I can get back to where I was. I am trying to remember the last time I saw Cilic play this well. It’s been a while, let me tell you that.”
Marin Cilic Grand Slam finals
Croatian Cilic won the US Open in 2014, but followed that up with final defeats at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
They arrived in 2017 and 2018 respectively, with the player losing to legendary figure Roger Federer on both occasions.