While rehabbing, Draper joined The Tennis Podcast for a wide-ranging interview in November, and the same topic surfaced.
“One of the most common questions we get from our listeners is: ‘Who’s gonna be the Djokovic, the third man, to enter the Alcaraz-Sinner duopoly the way Djokovic muscled into the Federer-Nadal thing?’” co-host Catherine Whitaker told Draper. “Are you like: I want that to be me?”
“Of course, yeah, but I’m also aware that there’s so many amazing young players,” Draper replied.
“You’ve got like [Arthur] Fils, Fonseca, Mensik. You’ve just got so many young players who are being so professional and focused on that goal as well. And also players like [Daniil] Medvedev, and [Andrey] Rublev, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, and [Taylor] Fritz; these guys who are gunning for them also.
“I think tennis is in a healthy spot right now. There’s a lot of healthy sort of competition to those guys.
“But definitely with the way I saw my tennis going, and with my trajectory… I was feeling like I was improving all the time. Still far away, but I was getting closer. So I feel like if I can just get back on court, get doing what I can do out there again, then hopefully I can close that gap even more.”
Come the main draw of Australian Open 2026, beginning in less than a month, we’ll see if it’s Draper, or one of those many other names, ready to stand up.