Even though Britain has played a hugely significant role in developing tennis as a sport, the tennis landscape in Britain has struggled. The country is dominated by another sport, though tennis has never wavered in popularity thanks to Wimbledon.
For a while, it was mostly Andy Murray carrying the British banner, but in recent times, we’ve seen a few more players breaking out. Let’s take a closer look at who the best British players in tennis are right now.
- Jack Draper (No 5)
Jack Draper is currently the best British player by a wide margin. If there was any doubt before this year, that doubt has vanished after his results, winning the Indian Wells Masters this year and making the Madrid Open final as well.
It’s been a while since British tennis has had a complete player like this. It hasn’t happened since Murray, and in many ways, Draper is not really like Murray. He’s much more aggressive as a player, much more reluctant to play long rallies and risk his knees, but also not quite at the same level of greatness as Murray was.
The potential is there, though, because at only 23, Draper is far from his best days. There is more experience to gain, more things to work on before he becomes the best possible version of himself.
But being ranked number five at only 23 shows that he’s already one of the best and will likely rise even further in the future. This year’s Wimbledon will show how serious of a Grand Slam contender he is, because he might just be one of the top five players on grass right now. Either way, he’s the British number one right now, and it’s not even close.
- Jacob Fearnley (No 55)
Jacob Fearnley (image on top) is technically the second-best player right now from Great Britain—at least according to the rankings. Cameron Norrie might actually be the second-best, but more on that in his segment. Let’s talk about former college star Fearnley, who has slowly but surely made his way into the top 100.
After toughing it out on the Challenger Tour last year, Fearnley has made the step forward, and it was expected. He’s got a decent all-around game with a powerful serve and some really strong shots from the baseline, which align with today’s very aggressive style of tennis.
He showed last year at Wimbledon against Djokovic that he’s a player capable of competing at the ATP level, and he’s backed it up this year on a variety of surfaces. It’s not just the quick ones that work for him, and that will be hugely important as he tries to develop into a truly complete player.
He’s only 23, so there is plenty of time for him to become a really superb player, and it’s expected that he will end up somewhere in the top 20 sooner or later. The potential is there, and now it’s all about proving that on the courts—and doing so consistently. He’s done a great job of that this year.
- Cameron Norrie (No 81)
Norrie is realistically the second-best on this list, though we have to put him at number three because of his ranking, which has suffered in recent times. Don’t forget, this is a player who was number eight in the world at his peak and played at the ATP Finals.
Whether that ranking was realistic or not is a question for another day, but Norrie has certainly seen better days than his current ranking. He’s been playing reasonably well lately, so he should get back to the top in no time because being ranked this low is not a fair reflection of his ability.
He’s 29, though, so he’s unlikely to get any better than he already is. For every Stan Wawrinka storyline, there have been 50 of the opposite kind, so expect Norrie’s peak to be behind him. Still, he’s a decent player who will have things to say for years to come.
Whatever happens, he’s going to be remembered as one of the better British players of the past few decades, even though his career highlight might be an ATP 1000 Masters win and a Grand Slam semifinal.
More on Norrie and his current racquet and gear.
- Billy Harris (No 102)
Billy Harris is an interesting name that many people haven’t heard of, but he’s a very capable player. Harris has spent the majority of his time on the Challenger Tour and even more so on the ITF Tour. It wasn’t until recently that he really started to take a step forward.
Harris broke into the top 200 for the first time in 2023 when he was almost 28. Since then, he’s been able to work his way even further up the rankings, getting close to entering the top 100.
He’s more than likely going to achieve it sometime this year, and that’s an amazing achievement for a player who really had a rough time getting here. It will be confirmation of all the hard work. He’s 30 years old—he’s not going to get any younger—so he has to maximize this chance.
Either way, a really inspiring story from the currently fourth best-ranked British tennis player.
- Jay Clarke (No 186)
Jay Clarke is another British prospect who has been on the Tour for a very long time. At 26, Clarke is not exactly the youngest but not the oldest either, and he’s been playing tennis for a very long time.
He nearly broke through into the top 100 years ago when he was only 19, but things never quite worked out for him. After years on the Challenger Tour, Clarke is making huge progress this year. He’s up to 186, which is the highest he’s been ranked since being number 156 in 2022.
Clarke is a solid player without any major weapons, but he has good touch and is capable of hitting some amazing shots. If he keeps working hard, he might just finally break into the top 100, which has been a longtime dream of his.
- Jan Choinski (No 196)
Jan Choinski has also been around for a long time and has mostly played on the Challenger Tour. Like many of his countrymen, he’s never been able to break through properly, but don’t be mistaken—this is a solid player.
He’s best known for his height of 196 cm, his powerful serve, and for playing a lot on clay. His family history is also interesting, as his father is Polish, his mother is British, and he grew up in Germany, which he represented until 2019 when he switched to the United Kingdom. His career-high ranking of 126 shows he’s been close.
- Dan Evans (No 213)
This is a man who needs no introduction because Dan Evans is a known name to tennis fans. An ATP champion who won two career trophies and peaked at number 21 less than two years ago, Evans has been on the struggle bus for a while.
His ranking took a nosedive in recent times, mostly because his style of play doesn’t work as well at 35 as it did some time ago. He’s a defensive player who runs a lot, and that gets tougher the older you get.
His career trajectory was fascinating—not devoid of controversy—but he’s beaten Novak Djokovic on a tennis court before, so it was all worth it. Either way, Evans deserved to be much higher on this list on pure skill alone, but the reality is his better days are behind him.
- Johannus Monday (No 244)
Johannus Monday might sound like a character from a Charles Dickens novel, but he’s actually a pretty decent tennis player. Unlike most on this list, he’s fairly young at only 23 years old. Monday has a lot of years ahead of him, which means he has time to become a strong tennis player.
He’s doing good things this year, improving his ranking to 244, which is the highest he’s ever been ranked. There is some potential here, but time will tell how far he can go. Plenty of potential to shape his game still.
- Paul Jubb (No 254)
Paul Jubb is another British tennis player who is rather well-known on the Challenger Tour and has earned some really good results there. He’s even played well on the ATP Tour before, especially on grass, but somehow, he can’t find the consistency needed to truly break out.
His career-high ranking was 180th, so he’s certainly better than his current ranking suggests. Jubb is also only 25, so there is plenty of time for him to develop into a good player. His biggest challenge is consistency, with a lack of it hurting him significantly so far in his career.
- Oliver Crawford (No 268)
The final name on this list is Oliver Crawford, another Challenger player with decent results. At 26, it doesn’t seem like a major breakout will be happening for Crawford, but he’s shown himself to be a strong player at lower levels – a Benjamin Bonzi type player.. Time will tell, but for now, Crawford isn’t anywhere close to the top 100, even with the occasional amazing run on the Challenger Tour. Much more consistency is needed for something like this.
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Honorable mentions
We have to mention three players that didn’t make our top 10, because all three could be ranked in the top 100 right now if things were different.
First off, Kyle Edmund: the massive career that never was.
Edmund is a name that should be known to most tennis fans because he is a player who was ranked inside the top 20 at one point. Edmund was number 14 in 2018, which is the year he made the Australian Open semi-final as well.
He was 23 at the time and looked like the next big thing out of Britain. Not only did he have a massive serve, but also amazing groundstrokes, which he demonstrated in that amazing run in Melbourne.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t sustain his play and had a dropoff in 2019, though he bounced back sometime later. Eventually, he started to deal with injuries in 2021, which have kept him away from the courts for a couple of years. Attempts to come back did happen, but he never managed to stay healthy.
He’s been back to playing for a while and currently sits at number 469, though it seems unlikely he’ll ever hit his peak again. He’s 30 years old right now with a battered body, and while it’s admirable that he’s still playing, time will tell whether he’ll ever get close to being what he used to be. It’s a shame that we’ll never see what he could have become because he had all the potential.
Ryan Peniston is another British tennis player who could have done so much more. He had a sneaky run on grass sometime back, peaking at number 123 in the rankings in 2022. He’s also a cancer survivor, which is truly inspiring, and while his career never quite took off as he had hoped, he’s cherishing every moment, embracing being an inspiration for many.
Finally, Jack Pinnington Jones is Brit who is not ranked highly right now but could be, as for a while he was touted as a huge talent. He’s had some good moments but overall failed to really make an impact so far, though there is still time. He’s only 22, so as long as he remains healthy and continues working hard, he could still move his way up this list.
See also;
Best French players right now
Current best Spanish players
Best Chinese tennis players
