Jack Draper is safely through to the next round of the Japan Open after cruising to a one-sided victory over Mattia Bellucci in Tokyo. The US Open semi-finalist won in straight sets to book a meeting with second seed Hubert Hurkacz in the round of 16.
Draper was made to work hard in the opening set by Bellucci, who made a fast start and looked competitive early on. However, the gulf in class between the two players was clear to see in the second set with Draper converting three break points.
The young Brit raced into a 5-1 lead before wrapping up a comfortable 6-4 6-2 victory over Bellucci with 10 aces to boot. It came just hours after his doubles victory, with Draper and Tomas Machac securing a 4-6 7-6 10-8 win over Alexander Erler and Matwe Middelkoop.
Draper’s victory over Bellucci marked his first singles win in any competition since losing to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals of the US Open. He recently played for Great Britain at the Davis Cup but was unable to find his best form, losing to Francisco Cerundolo and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Speaking ahead of the Japan Open, Draper said he was targeting a strong end to the year after breaking into the world’s top 20 with his run to the latter stages of the US Open.
“To be in my position now where I’m top 20 in the world and all that progress I’ve made in all situations in my tennis, my mind, my body, the way I feel, I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve done in the last year,” he said.
“But I’ve still got a very long way to go and I’ve got a lot to improve and a lot to learn and work on. I want to get to the position where I’m consistently winning and playing at a high level week in, week out.
“I want to have a good Asia swing and a good indoor season. The work’s not done yet. I think this period for me, I’ve played a lot of tennis and I’ve travelled a lot, it’s about looking after my body, making sure I don’t break down.
“I want to keep my motivation strong so that I can finish the year hopefully in a really strong way and then obviously have a prolonged pre-season and work really hard on my body and improve ready for next year.”
