Though Draper avoids more traditional New Age techniques like meditation, the world No. 5 has gained much from affirmations and self-talk, the latter helping him score a breakthrough win over Carlos Alcaraz two months ago in Indian Wells.
“After that set went away, I went to the toilet and just, yeah, kind of looked at myself in the mirror and was like, ‘You need to really, you need to really get my stuff together,’” he said after recovering from a second-set bagel to win, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4.
Draper has taken the technique onto clay, where he is in the midst of a career-best run on the surface, beating more established dirtballers like Matteo Arnaldi and Lorenzo Musetti en route to the final in Madrid.
