Jack Draper will face Roberto Bautista Agut or Jakub Mensik in his first tournament since his sensational Indian Wells triumph at the weekend. The Briton has a quick turnaround and will compete at the Miami Open this week.
Draper, who receives a bye in Miami as a seeded player, won his maiden Masters 1000 title by beating Holger Rune 6-2 6-2 at Indian Wells. He will now bid to win the second Masters 1000 tournament of his career at the Miami Open. The 23-year-old will face the winner of the veteran Agut’s match against teenager Mensik.
On his way to victory in California, Draper defeated the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz. He dropped only one set during the tournament, which many people consider to be the biggest event outside the four Grand Slams. The Sutton-born star has risen to No. 7 in the ATP Tour’s world rankings and his success provides important momentum ahead of a busy spring and summer.
“It’s incredible,” Draper said afterwards. “I wasn’t expecting this. I’ve put in a lot of work over time. I’m just so grateful and so happy to be out here to be able to play, my body feeling healthy, to feel great in the mind. Just all the work I’ve done over the last few years, it feels like it’s coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words.
I felt like I came out, I approached the match well,” said Draper. “Yesterday, I had a few ups and downs during the [semi-final against Alcaraz], a bit low energy against Carlos and I kind of learned from that today.
“I knew Holger was going to come out and play some really good tennis. So I needed to be aggressive and play to win from the first ball and I did an amazing job of that. I didn’t allow him to play. I felt like I dictated the match really well.”
Alexander Zverev is the top seed for the Miami Open due to the three-month ban of World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. The German will face Benjamin Bonzi or a qualifier. Carlos Alcaraz has been drawn to play Aleksandar Vukic or David Goffin, while Novak Djokovic will meet Rinky Hijikata or his fellow Serbian Hamad Medjedovic.
In the WTA, Emma Raducanu gets her Miami Open campaign underway against Sayaka Ishii. Katie Boulter faces Peyton Stearns.
