Jack Draper secured a place in the quarter final of the Adelaide International but it wasn’t easy and there was an element of controversy to blight the victory.
He’s a pretty hard worker, he’s fit and playing well, obviously, so it should be a fun match. Tommy Paul
It took him just over three-and-a-half hours to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic in round two, 5-7 7-6(4) 7-6(7) saving two match points in the second set and recovering from 4-1 down in the deciding set tie-break when he showed true British doggedness to keep himself involved and force himself over the finish line.
In comparison to his first match when he dropped just four games to eliminate the fifth seed in just under 90-minutes, this proved to be tough test.
Draper, the 22-year-old British No.4, will have to maintain his level of play when he faces the top seeded Tommy Paul from the US on Wednesday, who strolled past Aussie qualifier Alex Bolt 6-3 6-2.
The match was very much a roller coaster affair with the Serbian seemingly gaining the upper hand but then he squandered two match points in the second set as Draper worked his way back into the match by forcing a decider.
Then the controversial moment arrived which held up play for several minutes.
With the match slipping away from him, Kecmanovic stopped play and queried a Draper shot which he maintained had gone through the net. He argued the point with umpire Carvalho who stood firm giving the point, a match point, to the Brit who couldn’t convert it but a few points later, on his third match point, he did cross the finish line to make the last eight.
Later in the day, Dan Evans played his second-round but failed to progress past the 8th seeded Kazak Alexander Bublic, who recovered from dropping the opening set to the British No.2 to complete a 4-6 6-2 6-1 win in two-hours and two-minutes.
Tommy Paul looks in excellent form
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
As mentioned, Paul cruised through and was delighted with his performance.
“The first match of the year, you never really know what to expect,” Paul said in his post-match press conference. “I was obviously working pretty hard in the past two months, but you can’t recreate the feelings that you have on court. So I was happy to get out there and play some good tennis. I was a little nervous going into the match, the first match of the year is always a little weird.”
Looking ahead to his clash with Draper, he remembered that he had lost to him in their only previous meeting 12 months ago.
“I lost to him last year here. He’s obviously been working hard the past couple of months too. I’m sure he’s probably feeling a little tired right now but should be totally fine tomorrow. He’s a pretty hard worker, he’s fit and playing well, obviously, so it should be a fun match.”
The second seeded Nicolas Jarry of Chile, saved a match point in his clash with Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi eventually going through after three-hours and 27-minutes 6-7(5) 7-6(7) 6-4.
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