Photo Source:TTV
Jack Draper is on the cusp of a milestone at Queen’s Club, right where he belongs.
On Friday he’ll bid for his first semifinal in London, against either Dan Evans or Brandon Nakashima.
The 23-year-old moved into his third career quarterfinal at the legendary club, earning a 3-6 6-2 7-6(5) victory over Alexei Popyrin of Australia on Wednesday, behind 14 aces and 34 winners.
It was another gritty performance from a player who has defined himself on tour this year with a menacing game, but also a relentless mindset, which we saw from Draper after he got out of the gates slow against the ever dangerous Aussie.
“It was tense out there,” Draper said after the win, which improves his record to 27-7 on the year. “The first set, I wasn’t quite there and then I managed to get through the second. It was some tight tennis here and there, but I thought I did amazingly well to come through.
“I competed throughout, I accepted my errors and I accepted the fact that I wasn’t feeling great, to be honest.” Draper went unbroken in sets two and three, and saved the only break point he faced in those final two sets in the first game of the third set. Draper broke through for his first break of the day to take a 4-2 lead in set two, and closed out the set with a second consecutive break.
In the final set Draper had two match points with Popyrin serving at 4-5, but he needed to wait until the tiebreak to finally close it out. He rallied from 4-2 down, playing some of his most confident tennis of the day down the stretch as he won five of the final six points.
“I think my game still has to improve a lot more,” Draper said. “In the last couple of matches I have not been anywhere near my best tennis, but that’s normal. It’s the first tournament on the grass and I’m coming through these matches which is important. I’ve beaten a guy who is ranked [21] in the world today, and I can be proud of that. Hopefully I can just keep on building my confidence and start to play the kind of tennis I want to play.”