British tennis star Jack Draper completed a stunning 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) victory over World No 3 Novak Djokovic in the round of 16 stage of the Indian Wells Open, known as the BNP Paribas Open, in California on Wednesday.
This win helped the defending Indian Wells Open champion, Draper, to continue his impressive run of form since returning from an arm injury in February.
He defeated Viktor Durasovic 6-2, 6-2, thus helping Great Britain thump Norway 4-0 in the Davis Cup Qualifiers in Oslo. He then reached the last 16 stage of the Dubai Tennis Championships, where he lost to France’s Arthur Rinderknech in a hard-fought three-set battle.
Jack Draper’s comeback win against Novak Djokovic
In Thursday’s match, Draper lost the first set 4-6, but showcased excellent resilience to fight back and script yet another hard-fought victory. He broke Djokovic early in the second set, which the Brit went on to win 6-4, and force the match into a deciding third set.
In the third set, Draper broke Djokovic’s serve once again to take a 3–1 lead, and failed to seal the match on his serve at 5–4. The Serb, though, never gave up and fought back, forcing the third set into a tie-break. The 24-year-old won the tie-break 7-5, thus ending his unbeaten streak at Indian Wells to eight matches.
Djokovic, on the other hand, was playing his first tournament since the Australian Open earlier this year, wherein he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final.
“I came out here tonight, and I won that match through determination and trying to problem solve and do my best and have a great attitude,” Draper said in his interview on the court after the match.
“I’m proud of the way I regrouped. I haven’t been playing on the Tour [in] a long time, so to put away guys who are top players, it’s something that comes with confidence. It was a tough moment for me, but again, something I’m getting used to since coming back, and I regrouped really well. That’s something I can be really proud of,” he added.
Draper had defeated Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Indian Wells, before getting the better of Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5 in the second round. The defending Indian Wells champion will next face Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals on Friday.
