Twelve months ago Jack Draper sat with head bowed, picking over the bones of a wretched defeat by qualifier Jesper De Jong in the first round of the French Open. For the fourth time in the last 18 years, there had not been a single British winner in the first round of the singles.

What a difference a year makes. Now Draper arrives in Paris as the world No 5, and a breakthrough clay court season has Britain dreaming of a first male winner of this title since Fred Perry in 1935.

How has Draper conquered the clay? And, more generally, has British tennis developed a vaccine for the national allergy to red dirt?

To begin with Draper, every aspect of his game has improved but this year his physicality has taken a significant leap – after he overhauled his team and brought the Andy Murray band back together.

When his pre-season and Australian Open was ruined by hip pain, Draper decided it was time for a change. Fitness trainer Stephen ‘Speedo’ Coetzee and physio Will Herbert had transformed him from a boy into a hulking man but Draper wanted a team with experience of guiding a Grand Slam winner. And so he turned to Matt Little (fitness) and Shane Annun (physio), two men who worked with Murray for the last 10 years of his career.

Asked by Mail Sport in Rome about the reasons for his changes, Draper replied: ‘Stephen Coetze is an amazing trainer but it had just run its course and I felt like I needed to move on.

12 months ago, Jack Draper lost against qualifier Jesper De Jong in the first round of the French Open

12 months ago, Jack Draper lost against qualifier Jesper De Jong in the first round of the French Open

Now, he arrives in Paris as world No 5 and is dreaming of winning the title that has eluded a British male for 90 years

Now, he arrives in Paris as world No 5 and is dreaming of winning the title that has eluded a British male for 90 years

Draper has turned to Matt Little (right) - who worked with Andy Murray (left) for the last 10 years of his career

Draper has turned to Matt Little (right) – who worked with Andy Murray (left) for the last 10 years of his career

‘Matt is probably the best strength and conditioning coach I’ve ever worked with. He really is on his details and we’re focusing on making me a stronger all-round athlete. As for the physio side, Shane has worked with Andy for many years. He’s gone through the highs and lows with him, knows the tour and is one of the best physios out there.’

Under Little and Annun, Draper has taken his physicality to the next level and that allows him to survive the trench warfare of clay court tennis.

This fortnight will be the acid test of this improvement as the format shifts from three to five sets.

Can he win the title? He is seventh favourite with the bookies and that feels about right – but if we have learned anything about Draper in the last few months it is never to underestimate his abilities.

If Draper is the only British player with even the vaguest pretensions of contending for the title, there is cautious optimism for the rest of the pack, too. Emma Raducanu reached the last 16 in Rome, Katie Boulter won the lower-tier Paris title last week and Sonay Kartal won both matches on clay in her Billie Jean King Cup debut. Cam Norrie reached the semi-finals in Geneva, losing to Novak Djokovic on Friday night, and Jacob Fearnley came through qualifying to reach the third round in Madrid in his first clay court season.

There have been 29 tour-level wins on clay for British players this year, compared to 11 last year and 16 in 2023.

Much of this success can be traced back to an unseasonably sunny April back in the UK, the warmest for seven years. In the build up to the clay season, and between tournaments, the best of Britain flocked to LTA’s National Tennis Centre to practice on four pristine clay courts – two outdoor and two indoor.

The warm weather certainly helped, baking the surface into a smooth layer, but this was the fruits of a project begun before Covid to improve the facilities at the NTC.

This fortnight will be the acid test of Draper's physical improvement under his new coaches

This fortnight will be the acid test of Draper’s physical improvement under his new coaches

There have been 29 tour-level wins on clay for British players this year, compared to 11 last year and 16 in 2023. Pictured: Katie Boulter

There have been 29 tour-level wins on clay for British players this year, compared to 11 last year and 16 in 2023. Pictured: Katie Boulter

Much of the success Brits have had recently is due to the warm April the country has enjoyed

Much of the success Brits have had recently is due to the warm April the country has enjoyed

A paradox of clay courts is that they require regular watering but are ruined by rain. In the UK climate that makes the surface almost impossible to maintain and that is the major reason behind the historic failure of British players on the dirt.

Determined to produce world-class facilities on all surfaces, in 2019 the LTA hired Italian company Terre Davis to build clay courts in Roehampton.

Getting the surface right is one thing – maintaining it is quite another, so the LTA turned to clay-whisperer Valerio Sbernoli, the groundsman who looks after the courts at the Italian Open. Since 2023 Sbernoli has been coming to London for three-to-four months each year to prepare the courts for the clay season.

‘We’ve had to learn and adapt to the climate we have,’ the LTA’s head of operations Gary Stewart told Mail Sport. ‘You can’t be perfect but what you can do is utilize expertise and Valerio has taught our team a huge amount. He lives and breathes clay courts.’

Taking care of a clay court is as much art as science, similar to preparing a cricket wicket. How to repair divots, what weight of roller to use, how much or how little clay depending on the current weather – these methods are foreign to British groundsmen but second nature to men like Sbernoli.

‘The feedback from the players has been exceptional,’ said Stewart. ‘If you talk to the likes of Jack, he has said our practice courts are probably as good as, if not better than, some of the match courts on the tour.’

There has also been a change of attitude among the British players, who are seeing the clay swing as a time to be embraced rather than endured.

Former British No 1 Laura Robson retired in 2022 but remains close to many of the players. ‘It’s not a lot of people’s favourite surface if they’re British,’ the 31-year-old, who is here as a pundit for TNT Sport, told Mail Sport. ‘The difference this year is everyone has come into it with the mindset that they want to improve and they want to do better, and that’s been quite noticeable just to hear everyone talk about it over the last few months – they’re actually looking forward to it for once!’

Taking care of a clay court is as much art as science, similar to preparing a cricket wicket

Taking care of a clay court is as much art as science, similar to preparing a cricket wicket

Laura Robson (left) told Mail Sport that clay is 'not a lot of people's favourite surface if they are British'

Laura Robson (left) told Mail Sport that clay is ‘not a lot of people’s favourite surface if they are British’

Emma Raducanu has said that Brits look at clay 'as a challenge and less of a scary thing'

Emma Raducanu has said that Brits look at clay ‘as a challenge and less of a scary thing’

Raducanu, speaking in Paris, said: ‘I think we all look at it as a challenge and less of a scary thing. Katie won a tournament last week. Jack did really well. I’ve had a few wins.

‘It’s nice to get some wins on the board on this surface and as we all do that, we give each other inspiration, give each other confidence that the others can do the same. It’s a nice atmosphere to have and we push each other upwards that way.’

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