At the Challenger event in Bergamo last October, Draper just crept back into the world’s top 100 – a major marker on the professional tours and the direct gateway to Grand Slam events.

He lamented the “brutal” nature of a sport in which he had begun to rise to his potential only to suffer another setback with a shoulder injury.

“I was 40 in the world, I got injured and my ranking went completely down. I was coming back to the Challengers and I felt angry,” Draper said.

“But I knew that if I could get my body and mind in a good place, my tennis was good enough to compete with the best players in the world.”

This year, he demonstrated that by:

“It’s been a long year with a lot of ups and downs,” Draper said.

“But winning my first title, then the US Open, was huge in really believing that I belonged.

“It’s been a snowball effect ever since.”