'Really upset' Jack Draper rues grass 'struggles' after shock Wimbledon second-round exit against Marin Cilic

British No. 1 Jack Draper came into Wimbledon as one of the favourites to win the title, but he was beaten in the second round by former runner-up Marin Cilic. Big-serving Cilic won in four sets to send fourth seed Draper packing and reach the third round for the first time since 2021. There have been upsets aplenty so far at the All England Club, and Draper becomes the latest seed to be ousted.

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British No. 1 Jack Draper has become the latest top seed to fall at Wimbledon, as 36-year-old Marin Cilic rolled back the years to claim an impressive victory over four sets.

A former Wimbledon finalist in 2017, Cilic caused No. 4 seed Draper numerous issues with his domineering serve, and utilised his experience to not allow a brief shift in momentum to alter his fate in securing his passage to the third round, in his first Wimbledon campaign since 2021.

Cilic, whose 2024 season was hit hard by a knee issue which required surgery in May, is a Grand Slam champion, having won the US Open with victory over Kei Nishikori in the final just shy of 11 years ago.

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His vast experience on court, and indeed against a crowd rooting for its home favourite, showed in plentiful supply. The Croatian dictated much of the play on Court One as he romped to 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-4 victory.

Draper said afterwards he was "really disappointed" with his grass season, and feels weaknesses in his game have come to the fore on the surface, despite reaching the semi-final of Queen's in preparation for Wimbledon.

"I wasn't feeling too great at Queen's," Draper said. "I don't know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final.

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"Yeah, highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass, in all honesty. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay. My game, I felt like there wasn't many holes, whereas, as soon as I came onto the grass, I felt a big difference.

"So it's just something that I've got to keep in mind, how I'm going to develop my game for the long-term for next year, just to get better as a player. For sure, highlighted a lot of weaknesses in my game, especially against a player the way he was playing today, someone who's as good as him on the grass."

Draper added: "I think the last couple weeks has been good for me to see that, even though I've had such an amazing progression the last sort of 12 months, I've still got a lot of areas that I need to improve in my game.

"In some ways that's exciting, and in some ways that's hard to deal with because I thought I was ahead of where I was."

He said defeat to Cilic "hurt a lot".

"Really upset. Probably one of the toughest losses I feel."

The home crowd did its utmost to lift Draper, who appeared a little flat and struggled to deal with Cilic's high-octane hitting into the corners, and while the Brit avoided falling behind for much of the opening set, was caught out by an emphatic break to love as his opponent took the opener.

It was the first sign that Draper had lost his footing at a crucial stage of the match, followed up by Cilic gaining an immediate break in the second set and surging into a 3-0 lead. From there, the Brit had it all to do, and knew a lengthy trail was ahead of him if he were to claim the comeback.

But Cilic's dominance was unwavering. Draper, needing a break in order to claw his way back into the set, just could not come close to achieving it. Consecutive Cilic holds to love, before clinching a two-set lead by holding to 15, Draper could barely make a dent in his opponent's advantage as he found himself one set from a Wimbledon exit.

However, 13 years younger than his opponent, Draper may well have felt the longer the match went on, the more advantage he would draw.

Cilic looked to rubbish that notion by continuing to hit big, drifting around the court and coming up to the net when required. But Draper found another level to finally do what he could not in the early stages - seize Cilic's serve.

Under the pressure, knowing a mistake may well lead to being ousted from the tournament, Draper provided his best tennis of the evening to claim a double-break over Cilic - the Croatian only able to post a single hold as the crowd watched their home favourite cut his deficit in half.

Cilic may well have been left to rue his first-serve percentage of just 39%, but Draper was finally showcasing the level of tennis which sent him soaring to world No. 4.

Court One grew increasingly nervous as the fourth set motored on without a break, but the quality of the match only seemed to rise. Unfortunately for Draper, this seemed to ring particularly true for his veteran opponent, who remained solid on serve with the pair trading holds all the way to 5-4, the exact scenario which caught the Brit cold in the opening set.

And it proved to haunt him again. After a fierce back-of-the-court exchange on Cilic's first match point, Draper sent his searching backhand wide, and with that, his Wimbledon exit was sealed at the second hurdle.

Cilic will face Jaume Munar in the third round.

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