Jack Draper’s feats of clay spark hope of making deep run at French Open
Jack Draper believes his recent breakthrough on clay, a surface he is still finding his feet, has positioned him well for a potential deep run at the French Open as he seeks his first career win in Paris.“With the way I’m playing, the fact that I’ve really improved a lot recently and my ranking is going up and I feel confident, I think there’s a good chance I can do really well,” said Britain’s world No 5.“I’m looking forward to that challenge.”Six weeks ago, Draper began the clay court season merely hoping for his first significant gains on the surface.He has exceeded expectations, reaching his first clay-court final at the Madrid Open before following it up with a run to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open.
For the first time, he is a top-five player at a grand slam tournament,In hindsight, Draper’s messy five-set first round defeat by Jesper de Jong in Paris last year proved to be a necessary setback and one of the most important moments in his journey towards the top of the game,While his prior issues had revolved around his physical condition, that defeat forced him to make significant changes to his mentality and approach,In his next tournament, he won his long-awaited first ATP title in Stuttgart, a victory that set the tone for his subsequent results,“One year ago, and I think: ‘Wow,’ like how much I’ve learned through experience, but also the fact that I didn’t really understand my DNA as a tennis player, what I was trying to do on the court,” he said.
“Whereas now, obviously a lot more to come,I have a real good understanding and a good base of what I’m trying to do,That’s helped me achieve a lot of success, because I feel pretty confident when I go out on to the match court,Very proud of the way I’ve come in the last 12 months,I think that’s a testament to the hard work I’ve done, the people I’ve got around me.
”After four consecutive weeks of competition, Draper used the brief time between Rome and Paris to relax with his family and briefly pause before the second grand slam of the year,His rise has naturally come with more attention and scrutiny, but also more opportunities,He recently became a Burberry ambassador, leading a commercial campaign with the prominent model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley after shooting the campaign in Dubai,“She was lovely,She was really down to earth, really kind.
For someone who hasn’t been on many of those things before I was sort of: ‘What’s going on?’ but she made me feel very comfortable,” he said.“The whole campaign was really cool.There was a photo of us jumping out [into the Persian Gulf].She’s smiling, I’m not.I don’t think I got the memo.
I think she made me look good.”Despite his growing profile, and the widespread belief that he is capable of competing for the biggest titles, Draper says life has not changed too much off the court and he still navigates south London without any attention.“In the UK, I haven’t had that at all,” he said.“When I’m off the court, I’m quite low key.I wear baggy stuff and I’ve always had my hat on on-court.
Certainly small things: this week I had the haircut thing.I’ve had the same shocking haircut since I was 14 and everyone’s saying I’ve got a new haircut, [but] it’s the same one I’ve always had.So it’s nothing new.It’s just more people have [only] known me the last four months.”Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionElsewhere, the British No 1 Katie Boulter is also seeking her first victory at Roland Garros after winning her first clay court tournament at the Paris WTA 125 event last week.
“Sometimes playing the lower-ranked events are really good, then you can kind of gain a bit of confidence with them,” she said,“I am a bit of a confidence player, so I feel like I need that sometimes,I was very happy to step down and play that tournament,I had no expectations going into it,Obviously I think it helped and it worked.
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How to turn the dregs of a tahini jar into a brilliant Japanese condiment - recipe | Waste not
A jar of goma dare is a new favourite fixture in my fridge door. This Japanese-style condiment, dipping sauce and dressing made from ground sesame seeds is powerful in flavour, sweet, sour and creamy all at the same time, while the addition of grated ginger and/or garlic makes it wonderfully piquant, too. It’s also very moreish and hugely versatile, meaning you can serve it with everything from a traditional shabu shabu hot pot to cold noodles, tofu, aubergine and slaw; in fact, it’s so tasty I have to stop myself from eating it straight from the jar. My recipe uses the leftover tahini in the bottom of a jar and comes together in the jar itself, so minimising both waste and washing-up. Simply add all the ingredients, scrape down the sides and shake (you can apply a similar method to the ends of a peanut butter jar, too, for a nutty, satay-style twist)
Pistachio tiramisu and mango shortcakes: Nicola Lamb’s recipes for spring desserts
When mango season is upon us, I love nothing more than thinking of as many waysas possible to eat them. It’s hard to beat the joy of messily eating one over a sink, but these flaky, American-style shortcakes, which you may recognise as similar to scones, are a brilliant mango delivery method. Meanwhile, there are few things that pistachio doesn’t improve, and here pistachio cream, which is conveniently fortified with sugar and fat, and emulsified to a smooth, spoonable paste, is paired with coffee in the form of an airy tiramisu to feed a crowd.Using cold grated butter and performing a few roll, stack and folds will give you towering shortcakes with tender middles and crisp tops.Prep 10 min Cook 1 hr Makes 6For the flaky scones120g very cold butter 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 10g baking powder ½ tsp flaky salt 30g caster sugar 130g buttermilk, plus extra for brushing2 tsp granulated sugarFor the whipped cream 150g greek yoghurt 30g caster sugar 150g double creamTo finish3-4 small ripe Indian mangoes (I like alphonso), peeled and cut into thin horizontal strips1 limeGrate the cold butter on to a plate
Australian supermarket cucumber pickles taste test: ‘I didn’t think any would be this powerful’
Baby cucumbers, dill gherkins and snacky cornichons are put to a blind taste test by Nicholas Jordan and friends, who find there’s a big leap from sour and salty to ‘unnervingly unnatural’I love pickles. I almost always order pickles and/or ferments on restaurant menus, my fridge is regularly stocked with a zoological range of pickle colours and smells, and I find the idea of eating more than 20 different pickles in a single hour thrilling.But this wasn’t a taste test of pickles: it was a taste test of supermarket aisle cucumber pickles, the Wes Anderson films of the stinky food world. Sure, they’ve got some character, but step into that theatre and everyone knows exactly what they’re about to get, and it isn’t depth.The blind taste test consisted of me and 11 friends eating 21 cucumber pickles
Layer up: spring fillings for filo pies
Filo pies are my go-to for entertaining, but what are the best spring fillings? The wonderful thing about filo pies and tarts is that they look fancy even when they’re knocked up from just a handful of ingredients, they require little more than a green salad to please and, much like the rest of us, they really do benefit from some downtime. “They’re even better at room temperature because the flavour evolves,” says Rosie Kellett, author of In for Dinner, which also makes them perfect for dodging any last-minute entertaining scrambles.Kellett likes to wrap as many spring greens as possible in filo, along with cheese and hot honey butter. “The key to getting a really delicious filo tart or pie is a flavoured butter,” she says, so, rather than simply painting melted butter between every filo sheet so it goes nice and crisp in the oven, she also adds honey and harissa. (In a similar vein, if your pie or tart involves mushrooms, take your lead from Feast columnist Georgina Hayden, who uses butter flavoured with thyme and Marmite
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for gildas in carriages | Quick and easy
Gildas are such a lovely pre-dinner snack: really good olives and anchovies on a stick, with any number of variations, such as artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, bits of cheese … The one I had most recently, at Brett in Glasgow, was beyond wonderful, and featured chicken fat-topped croutons and homemade green chilli sauce with plump Perelló olives and anchovies. Inspired by this, I made a lemon-spiked green chilli and artichoke tapenade for hot focaccia, topped with the same excellent olives and the best anchovies.I don’t usually specify brands in my recipes, but when there are so few ingredients, it really is worth getting the ones recommended below as a treat. They’re very rich, too, so a few go a long way.Prep 15 min Cook 20 min Serves 6 as a starter or pre-drink snack250g focaccia 125g jarred artichokes in olive oil (drained weight), plus 25ml oil from the jar1 tsp sea salt flakes Juice of ½ lemon1-2 large green chillies, depending on your tolerance to heat150g tinned green olives (drained weight; from a 350g tin) – I like Perelló1-2 47½g tins anchovies in oil (27g drained weight) – I like OrtizHeat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6
‘For indulgence, brioche is king’ – the sweet, buttery bread stealing sourdough’s crown
Once an indicator of wealth, but for years stuck in burger-bun purgatory, the enriched dough is being embraced by a new generation of chefs and bakers for its versatility and delicious complexity‘You shouldn’t have to fight your sandwich,” says Sacha Yonan, his voice rising to compete with the noise of London’s Soho on a Tuesday morning. Within half an hour, queues for the sandwiches at Crunch, the sandwich shop he co-founded earlier this year, will be snaking out of its doors. Its secret? Fresh brioche, which comes toasted and filled with ingredients that give the place its name, including southern-fried chicken, baby pickles and lettuce. “We love a sourdough,” says Joni Francisco, Crunch’s head of food. “But if you’re talking about sandwiches, then you need something with an easier mouthfeel
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