It was not until 10pm on Wednesday night that Jack Draper finally returned to the locker room after his tenacious victory over the world No 6 Taylor Fritz. Even then, there was no time to spare. He had just 19 hours to work through his daily treatment, recover, sleep and ensure that he was prepared for another meeting with one of the best players in the world.
That challenge proved a step too far in the end as Draper’s fatigue caught up with him against an indefatigable opponent and he was methodically ground down in the last 16 of the Paris Masters by a brilliant Alex de Minaur, the ninth seed. Although Draper fought hard until the end, he the Australian finally won 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday evening.
“Alex played a really, really good match and he was moving great,” Draper told the Guardian. “Obviously, I think just mentally, I was struggling to keep going today. It’s been a lot of matches in a lot of days at a high level. And that’s just the nature of tennis and something I need to keep on getting better at. The best players in the world will back it up every day. And I just wasn’t able to do that today.”
The defeat ends Draper’s seven-match winning streak after he won the biggest title of his career on Sunday at the Vienna Open, an ATP 500 event. As he set his sights on Paris, Draper was charged with adjusting to the fastest courts at Masters 1000 events this year alongside an extremely difficult draw that saw him face two top-10 opponents in his first three matches.
“It’s nuts. I’ve played eight matches in 10 days and it’s not easy matches,” said Draper. “They are against the top players in the world. It’s physical. I’m giving everything for every point and then, obviously, changing surfaces, changing conditions, no real rest. It’s difficult to keep on going and going and going. Also, knowing this is my last tournament of the year, it’s difficult on court as well. But at the same time, I’m proud of my efforts and hopefully I can continue to work hard and do better.”
After facing two serve-dominant offensive players, Jiri Lehecka and Fritz, in his opening matches, Draper actually enjoyed having more time on the ball early on. From the beginning, he served extremely well and dominated off the ground, hammering forehands down the line throughout the set. Even when he failed to serve out the first set at 5-3, he quickly re-established his control of the exchanges and closed out the set.
Over the past 18 months, however, De Minaur has embedded himself inside the top 10 alongside far bigger and stronger opponents in large part because of his grit and spirit. He dug deep from early in the second set and slowly began to turn the match around.
As De Minaur served significantly better and erased the earlier unforced errors from his game, he pulled Draper into the lengthier, attritional rallies while also looking to take the ball early and impose himself when he could. Throughout the final two sets, the world No 10 never allowed Draper to regain control of the baseline, exposing the Briton’s fatigue by forcing him to work hard for every single point until the end.
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“To really push [In Vienna], play great and do well was amazing,” Draper said. “And then you’ve got to back up, you’ve got to go again. I fought hard yesterday, came through a tough one, and then today I think it was just a little too much for me to keep going. But I’m learning all the time, I’m still young. I’m still trying to get over mental barriers, you know? And that’s going to take time.”
With this defeat, the 22-year-old’s exceptional breakout season comes to an end. He finishes the year with his first two ATP titles in Stuttgart and Vienna alongside his first ever grand slam semi-final at the US Open, his results propelling him into the top 15 for the first time in his career and marking him as one of the best players in the world. Most importantly, Draper has positioned himself perfectly to achieve even more in the coming years.