{"id":433929,"date":"2026-02-19T10:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/433929\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:11:14","slug":"meet-up-and-coming-british-tennis-star-with-a-bit-of-andy-murray-in-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/433929\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet up-and-coming British tennis star with \u2018a bit of Andy Murray in him\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Pinnington Jones used to hitch rides in Jack Draper\u2019s battered Volkswagen Polo to the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton when the pair were teenagers. Friends and junior rivals from the neighbouring villages of Cobham and Ashtead in Surrey, their paths diverged abruptly in 2021 when Draper announced himself by making the quarter-final at Queen\u2019s and taking a set off Novak Djokovic as a wild card in the first round at Wimbledon. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pinnington Jones, who is 15 months younger, spent a year toiling on the bottom-rung ITF World Tennis Tour, playing unglamorous events in places such as Egypt and Romania before conceding he wasn\u2019t ready and heading to college in the United States.<\/p>\n

But after three years at Texas Christian University (TCU), a path well trodden by the likes of Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley, Pinnington Jones has taken to the professional tour for the second time with much greater aplomb. Since winning on his Wimbledon singles debut last summer the 22-year-old has picked up two Challenger titles \u2014 the latter without losing a set. <\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones reached the second round of Wimbledon last year<\/p>\n

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER<\/p>\n

Then, after coming through two rounds of qualifying at the Dallas Open, Pinnington Jones reached the first ATP Tour quarter-final of his career last week \u2014 a run that included victory over world No20 Flavio Cobolli. Up to No136, having started college outside the top 500, he has forged his own route to being a genuine British contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can be as good as anybody as long as he knows he needs to keep developing,\u201d says David Roditi, head coach at TCU. \u201cThe part Jack\u2019s best at is the part that\u2019s hardest to teach, and that\u2019s having that confidence in the moment, wanting the pressure, loving to compete. He loves tennis. He\u2019s got a lot of support and backing with his team and the LTA, so all those are good things. He gets bored at practice easily. As long as he knows that there are going to be days that are boring and sucks it up, he can be as good as anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones\u2019s breakthrough is the latest testament to the benefits of the college route. Oliver Tarvet, 22, who also reached the second round at Wimbledon last year, is still in his final year at the University of San Diego. \u201cHistorically, players would have felt going to college was a way of saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be a pro.\u2019 That\u2019s certainly not the case now and I think most \u2014 if not all \u2014 players should entertain the idea,\u201d says Mark Hilton, the men\u2019s national coach at the LTA, who was Pinnington Jones\u2019s \u201ccase manager\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is it\u2019s also very expensive at 18 years old if you\u2019re not ready to play pro tennis, whereas college can really support you through that process and they come out on a steep trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones competes at Wimbledon in the boys singles in 2021<\/p>\n

MIKE HEWITT\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones was still highly regarded when he arrived at TCU but Roditi admits there was a \u201cmaturity aspect of his development that needed to happen\u201d. He didn\u2019t struggle academically but naturally wanted to enjoy the social scene and his propensity to get bored meant, in Roditi\u2019s words: \u201cWhen it\u2019s 11pm and you want to go hang with your mates, that\u2019s what he did.\u201d On the court, Pinnington Jones was \u201cset in his ways and confident about what he thinks he needs\u201d, but that stubbornness could often prove a \u201cdouble-edged sword\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roditi recalls one match when Pinnington Jones told him he didn\u2019t need any in-game coaching. \u201cI said, \u2018OK, no problem Jack, we\u2019ll leave you alone and we\u2019ll be here if you need us.\u2019 \u201d After Pinnington Jones lost the first set Roditi offered a few words of encouragement. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Let\u2019s go, let\u2019s go. You got this.\u2019 And he just yells out loud: \u2018Well maybe I would if I could get any coaching out here,\u2019 \u201d Roditi says, laughing. \u201cHe\u2019s got a little bit of that Andy Murray in him of lashing out [at his coaches]. He just absolutely hates to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another common trait was Pinnington Jones\u2019s reluctance to spend too long warming up. While team-mate Fearnley would err on the side of caution and hit for up to an hour before matches, Pinnington Jones preferred to restrict that to 20 minutes, even when TCU were competing in the final of the NCAA Championships. \u201cIn college you start with doubles and it\u2019s only one set so it\u2019s a bit of a sprint,\u201d Roditi says. \u201cThere was only about 20 minutes left and it was super, super windy and he hadn\u2019t hit a ball yet and even I was freaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones won his doubles match regardless, although Roditi points out it was because their opponents double-faulted three times in one game, and he then came back from a set and a break down to beat Eliot Spizzirri in the crucial singles match. \u201cHe was a big hero that day,\u201d Roditi says. \u201cHe just kept hanging in there and somehow turned it around. He wants the ball on his strings in that big moment. If it was soccer, he would want to be the one taking a penalty in the shoot-out. That\u2019s what makes him such a great competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a technical standpoint Pinnington Jones\u2019s serve has improved markedly, a facet of his game he\u2019s worked on painstakingly, along with his ability to come into the net and finish off points. He was deemed ready for the tour a year before finishing his degree, but the fact Pinnington Jones\u2019s breakthrough run on the ATP Tour came in Dallas meant Roditi and some of his old team-mates were there to support him. Ironically, Pinnington Jones\u2019s opponent in the round of 16 was Spizzirri, who is now ranked No67 in the world.<\/p>\n

Pinnington Jones is now coached by David Felgate, who was instrumental in both Tim Henman and Dan Evans\u2019s careers, while James Trotman can also offer advice as and when required since splitting with Draper after four years in October and returning to the LTA as a national men\u2019s coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a very good team around him and James is there to offer a line of support as well, which is brilliant for Jack [Pinnington Jones] because James has gone through this experience with Jack Draper the last few years and that guidance can be invaluable,\u201d Hilton says. \u201cThe demands are different on tour. Jack won a lot of matches straight away so then you pull him back and go again. He\u2019s still very young in body and in mind, so it\u2019s making sure he stays fresh for as long as possible, and he\u2019s got a really good window over the next few months to elevate himself into an even higher position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Pinnington Jones used to hitch rides in Jack Draper\u2019s battered Volkswagen Polo to the National Tennis Centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-433929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}