Mr Draper graduated from BSHS in 1991. He loved his time at State High, particularly HPE, school camps, lunchtimes with his friends and playing in the first IV tennis team since year 9. 

He recalls teachers often telling him that he has potential and can do better. He remembers receiving a phone call from his year 12 economics teacher 4 years after graduating,  to congratulate him on achieving what he set out to do when he was competing at the US Open. 

In 1998, he won the Queens Club Championship, the precursor to Wimbledon. His rankings had fallen prior to the tournament due to personal challenges and he thus went in with low expectations. However, he succeeded over the course of the tournament, even beating fellow Australians, Mark Woodforde and Pat Rafter.

Mr Draper also won the mixed doubles title with Sam Stosur at the Australian Open in 2005, a tournament he did not originally plan to compete in. At the same time, he was competing in the Victorian Open Golf Championships and recalls liaising with officials of both tournaments to ensure he could compete. This meant that he was playing his first round of golf in the morning, before competing in the tennis semi-finals in the same afternoon.

Following his retirement from tennis at the end of 2005, Mr Draper continued to play professional golf for another 5 years. He is grateful for his career as a sportsperson, due to the friendships he has made and the opportunities he has been given to travel and see the world.

Due to his background in high performance sport, Mr Draper completed an MBA in leadership and innovation and fell in love with facilitation as he saw how helpful it was during his career and felt like he could give back outside of sport this way. He found rewarding and is currently a leadership consultant at KPMG.

His advice to all students is "earn to be comfortable in your own skin and dedicate time and energy to the things you love".

Written by Kinjal Dani*