British No 2 Jack Draper crashes out of French Open in the first round after shock defeat by world No 176 Jesper de Jong in worst loss of his career

Jack Draper said it ‘felt like I was playing without a serve’ as he lost in the first round of the French Open to Jesper de Jong, the world No 176.

By ranking, it was the worst defeat of the British No2’s career and also, at four hours and 12 minutes, his longest ever match.

Draper came back from two sets down to force a decider but could not finish his dogged opponent off. The 22-year-old hit nine double faults, the most costly of which came at break point down in his final service game of the match, and was followed by a volley off f-bombs.

‘My serve has been a problem this year,’ he said. ‘I'm trying to change it to make it better, and I've made those changes in the last few weeks. So it's not comfortable, especially in a Grand Slam playing in a fifth set on a second serve.

‘The confidence isn't there at the moment on my serve and it's a problem I'm going to have to work on with coaches and see where I can make it more consistent because it's really letting me down.

‘The frustrating thing is I feel like I'm missing my serves by such a small distance every time and I can't wrap my head around how that's possible.

‘This loss hurts a lot. I've played a long match there. Felt physically great. I look at the positives on that side, but my tennis... I know I'm so much better than how I played today, and that's what hurts.

‘We have to have a short-term memory in tennis and there will be more opportunities to come. I just hope I can learn from this loss.’

Including tweaks to his serve, mainly around his stance, Draper is in the middle of revamping his game at the instigation of his new coach Wayne Ferreira.

The South African former world No6 believes that, while Draper’s defensive, grinding style of tennis was enough to get him up to 39 in the world, to take the next step he must become more assertive.

It is one thing to craft a new gameplan on the practice court but quite another to implement it in the intensity of Grand Slam combat.

‘When you are used to playing in a defensive way for all your life, it's really difficult to see tennis in a different way,’ said Draper.

‘I've got I got to 35 in the world playing the way I have, but I don't want to be stuck between 20 and 50 all my career. I want to be a top player.

‘Things have to change, and that's going to take time. We spoke about it before: these tournaments, it's going to be very strange competing and playing.

‘I really believe I want to do things differently. I want to play more aggressively, I want to take it to the opponent a bit more. Even in the match today at certain times it was there, but it's not consistent. It's very up and down at the moment.’

It can be a deceptively nasty draw playing a qualifier. De Jong, 23, had already won three matches on these courts and while the Dutchman set off at full sail, Draper was still finding his sea legs.

At two sets and 3-0 down Draper, perhaps liberated up by the lack of scoreboard pressure, began to swing with more abandon and play the kind of front-foot game Ferreira is demanding.

He won the third set and led 4-1 in the fourth when rain forced the players off for an hour and a half. When play resumed things were much tighter, and at the key moment in the fifth set the Draper serve malfunctioned.

‘I have to expect things at the moment to be difficult for me,’ he acknowledged. ‘I've got to be expecting not to play with loads of confidence and reassurance in my tennis. I think that showed.

‘Some bits were good, and then on big points there's a double fault coming, there's a missed return, there's a missed forehand middle of the court.’

On paper this is an ugly defeat but Draper deserves immense credit for attempting to rework his game to strive for the highest echelons of the sport - and for fronting up so honestly about what he is trying to achieve.

But unless you are the very apex of tennis – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have done this very successfully – it is fiendishly difficult to tweak your game in the midst of battle.

Things may get worse for Draper before they get better but, if they do indeed get better, he will perhaps look back on days like Sunday with a sense of grim satisfaction.