Jack Draper, a 21-year-old British tennis player, had a remarkable achievement at the Sofia Open. He won his semi-final match, making it to the ATP Tour final for the first time in his career. Draper is considered one of the most promising young players in British men’s tennis.
Britain’s Jack Draper made history by becoming the youngest Brit in 14 years to reach an ATP Tour final. He achieved this milestone after defeating Jan-Lennard Struff with a score of 6-3, 6-4 at the Sofia Open.
At 21 years old, Draper is the youngest British player to reach a men’s final since Andy Murray in 2009.
Less than a week after winning an ATP Challenger Tour event in Italy, he will face Adrian Mannarino in the final on Saturday. Mannarino defeated Pavel Kotov 6-2 7-6(2) in the other semi-final.
“Obviously I am very proud. Andy is an amazing player. I hope one day I can do what he’s done in the sport but it’s a long way to go and I’ll keep trying,” said Draper.
“I didn’t serve as well today but the opponent was putting a lot of pressure on my serve. I think I’ve got to just try and keep the rhythm. It was tough out here with some tense moments. It was a semi-final to get into my first final so I was nervous, but I came through it well.”
Draper started playing professionally in 2021. He got a special invitation to Wimbledon. In his first match, he won the first set against the defending champion, Novak Djokovic, but eventually lost the match in four sets.
He won his first Challenger tournament in 2022 and reached the top 100 of the ATP rankings in June of that year. He then received a direct entry into Wimbledon and won his first match in a Grand Slam.
Later that summer, Draper defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas and reached the quarter-finals of the Canadian Open. This was the first time he advanced to the final eight of an ATP 1000 tournament.
He reached the fourth round of the US Open by defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime without dropping a set. As a result, he earned a spot in the NextGen ATP finals, which is a tournament held at the end of the season for the top eight players aged 21 or younger.
Draper had a good start to 2023 by reaching the semi-finals of the Adelaide International 2 tournament. He defeated Karen Khachanov but lost to Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.
Since then, he has had a season filled with injuries. However, he managed to return for the US Open and reached the second week of the Grand Slam with wins against Radu Albot, 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz, and Michael Mmoh.
The British tennis player continued his success after his previous event at Flushing Meadows by reaching the final of the Open d’Orleans tournament. This achievement helped him regain a position in the top 100 players in the world. Additionally, he won his fifth Challenger title at the Trofeo Faip-Perrel in early November.
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