Jack Draper plans to invest his $546,800 prize money for winning the 2023 Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) Grand Final at ExceL London back into his tennis development as he prepares for the 2024 season.

The 21-year-old hometown favourite from south London overturned a first quarter deficit before completing an emphatic 3-1 victory (12-14, 15-12, 13-10, 19-7) over fellow wildcard invitee Holger Rune, Denmark's world number eight.

Draper, currently number 61 in the men's ATP world rankings, finished the eight-man three-day exhibition tournament unbeaten having topped Group B with wins over Frenchman Gael Monfils, Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik and Rune and beating world number 11 Casper Ruud, of Norway, 3-0 in the semi-finals.

UTS, the brainchild of highly respected tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou, uses different rules to the traditional format, with players competing to win as many points as possible in four eight-minute quarters, all accompanied with live music and on-court interviews between sets.

"To finish this strong and play some great tennis in my home country and home city is amazing,” said Draper, who was given the nickname 'The Power' after being a fan of the legendary 16-time world darts champion Phil Taylor.

“I think it’s been a really weird format. Really fun to play and obviously playing against the best players in the world and getting wins in those matches feels amazing, so I'm very happy.

"He (Rune) definitely came out playing perfectly well in the final and I knew it would be a different match, so I was really proud with the way I kept on fighting, kept on playing and kept on competing. The crowd helped me as well. 

"I decided to stay claim, obviously some go your way and some don't. I had three out of three against Casper so maybe I knew that if something didn't go my way maybe it's not so bad because I had a lot of luck on my side.

"In the last quarter I was way ahead so I think against really good players you really get an easy quarter. You have to keep on playing great tennis and you have to keep on winning and winning so it was really tight and it was a great match."

The victory will go down as Draper’s biggest achievement in his pro tennis career to date, despite missing out on his maiden ATP main world tour title at the 2023 Sofia Open last month in Bulgaria where he was beaten in three sets in the final by France's Adrain Mannarino.

The $546,800 winner's cheque he picked up at ExCeL London dwarfed his previous best of $265,000 for reaching the round four at this year's US Open in New York.

“It’s no doubt tennis is a really expensive sport," he added.

"Obviously it's an individual sport but it is a team sport because there’s so many people helping me on a day-to-day basis, working on my body, working on my tennis and so that money goes a long way into investing in my tennis and becoming an all-round athlete."