Jack Draper clinched his first ATP500 title in Vienna yesterday afternoon, capping a tournament which saw the retiring Dominic Thiem bow out from competition this week while Olympic bronze medallist Lorenzo Musetti and eventual runner-up Karen Khachanov produced runs on the indoor surface giving both renewed confidence they can exceed expectations in bigger events.
Draper digs in, after enduring second set wobble
Draper [7] bt. Khachanov 6-4, 7-5
- A moment to savour! Draper’s flash interview post-match: “It’s a relief, to come through when it matters. I’ve loved being in Vienna, so many amazing players here so to win my first ATP500 here feels incredible. I’m so proud of myself and my team, the work we put in… it’s for moments like these.”
- British number one edged beyond wildcard Kei Nishikori 7-6, 7-5 in R1 and never looked back afterwards. Beat Dominic Thiem’s conqueror Lorenzo Darderi 7-5, 6-1, battled past Tomas Machac in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) and straight-sets (6-2, 6-4) against Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinals
PERHAPS even twelve months ago, Jack Draper would’ve suffered a painful final defeat here. Having produced some Playstation levels of tennis early on, he led 6-4, 4-0 against a 2022 US Open semifinalist and Olympic silver medallist in Karen Khachanov who had beaten him in two of their three previous H2H meetings.
They last played in Adelaide, some 21 months prior, and plenty has happened for both since Draper’s 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) quarter-final win over the Russian that day.
Injuries and inconsistent form has followed both in different stages of a relentless tennis calendar but one thing is clear: the top-ranked British player, who turns 23 on Christmas week, is steadily building up a tolerance for these high-pressure situations in ways many critics didn’t think his body would physically allow a few years prior.
Whether he’ll be able to sufficiently manage a quick turnaround for the season’s final Masters 1000 event in Paris, where he’s set to play Czech talent Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday afternoon, remains to be seen. That’s part of what makes the relentless calendar so unpredictable, one week you’re on top and the next, who knows where?
Yet he’ll know that this is an eventuality that comes with success on tour, having exceeded expectations to reach the final four in Flushing Meadows before racing back to Manchester to immerse himself in the team environment again, representing a newlook Great Britain team across Davis Cup group stage play the following week.
The pair are six weeks apart in age, Lehecka sits at world no. 29 and Draper has risen to a new career-high #14 in the live rankings.
Having suffered through a troublesome back issue for a significant chunk of the campaign, the Michal Navratil-trained talent clinched this season’s Adelaide (ATP250) crown at Draper’s expense over three sets in January.
As for this finale, the statistic graphic showed only an 11-point differential in total points won between them but Draper was unsurprisingly the more aggressive, utilising his weapons well across the court.
It would’ve felt like deja vu for Khachanov as this resembled similarities to how he recovered from a set down to pitch an overwhelming display two years ago last month, before pulling and later tearing his upper right hamstring in a sobering reminder of how physical stress is heightened at the very highest level.
Half-a-dozen aces and 16 forehand winners quickly dwarved the Russian, working harder for free points and embracing longer rallies to truly extract errors from the leftie’s racquet in set two. They came too late for a rousing comeback.
Draper was clinical at the net, the one close-range error he did concede was precisely the type you’d expect him to make with his eyes closed and came at a juncture where momentum was in Karen’s favour. The crowd got behind him, though it proved a false dawn as Jack recomposed himself well for another morale-boosting result.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes via Sky Sports tennis
Mo and Sports 