Sutton's Jack Draper has his sights fully focused on playing in the Wimbledon Qualifying tournament en-route to reaching the main draw of British Tennis's prestigious Grand Slam event, writes Ziad Chaudry.

The 17-year-old, a runner-up at last year's Wimbledon boy's championship, failed to make it into the main draw of this week's Fever-Tree Championships at Queens Club, West Kensington after losing his first round qualifier against Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik in three sets.

And he began his British Summer Grass Court season campaign at Nottingham Open ATP Challenger Tour event last week where his run ended in round two to eventual tournament winner Dan Evans.

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And Draper, currently ranked 507 in the ATP world standings and the son of former Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Roger, took plenty of positives from his lone match at Queens.

"All these experiences for great for me and great learning," he said. "I might not be winning right now but in the end I'll be able to close out these matches I hope so it's all great exposure."

A semi-final run at Scottish Championships in Glasgow has been the pick of Draper's season so far. In fact his 2019 campaign has not quite gone into full swing due to the injuries and lack of court activity.

"This season has been very rocky for me," he continues. "I've been injured quite a few times so I've been on court five weeks this year whether it's practise or match play.

"I haven't had a lot of volumn but I'm trying to deal with it well and these tournaments are great exposure for me playing against top level players."

And Draper, who began playing tennis at Sutton Tennis & Squash club where his mother Nikki was employed, admits he is not thinking too far about making it into the main singles draw at SW19 as he firmly targets a place at Qualifying event which takes place on June 24 to 27 at Bank Of England Sports Centre, Roehampton.

"I'm looking to play qualifying," he continues. "I've got that in my mind but if the AELTC or LTA feel I deserve a wild card or for whatever reason I'll take advantage of it. But my focus right now is getting ready for qualies and I'm sure I can do some damage in whatever I plan to do."