Jack Draper is back on the tennis courts, and so far, he seems to be quite unstoppable at the 2024 Vienna Open.
The British player struggled with plenty of injuries throughout his tennis career, but in 2024, he finally managed to stay relatively healthy and complete the full year on the ATP Tour.
The important word is 'relatively,' as Draper still had some minor issues every now and then, but that's something that no athlete can escape, given the demanding nature of professional sports.
Most recently, after reaching the US Open semi-finals, Draper was forced to retire from his quarter-final match at the Japan Open in Tokyo. After that, he also withdrew from the Shanghai Masters, and it seemed that the end of the season would be marked by an injury lay-off for the Brit again.
That won't happen as Draper's name appeared in the 2024 Vienna Open draw, and he was given a stern test in the opening round of the ATP 500 tournament, taking on former World No. 4, Kei Nishikori.
The 22-year-old player bested the veteran from Japan in two sets, 7-6(5), 7-5. Thanks to that win, he set up a second-round matchup with Luciano Darderi, who sent Dominic Thiem into retirement with his first-round win.
Prior to that match, the Italian player was on a seven-match losing streak, so it was certainly a confidence boost that he needed, but Draper played a few levels above the retiring Austrian.
In the first set of the match, however, Darderi managed to keep it incredibly close. Both players were absolutely insane on their serve, as the Italian player hit seven aces while hitting 85% of his first serves in, while Draper hit an incredible 14 aces and won mind-blowing 100% points after his first serve.
Those stats could indicate a set that clearly had to be decided in a tie-break, but it wasn't. On top of an insane serving, Draper was great on return as well. He had two break points in the seventh game of the match, but he couldn't use those chances.
However, four games later, he created two more break point chances, and this time, he broke his opponent's serve to lead 6-5 and serve for the opening set of the match.
Some players could feel nervous at that moment, especially since he was perfect on his serve up until that moment. But not Draper. He hit four consecutive aces to win the first set 7-5.
In the second set, he followed up on the streak of games won from the first set, breaking his opponent's serve in the opening game and confirming it with a hold while saving the only break point that he faced in the match.
With no more break chances on offer for Darderi, there was no way of coming back, and on top of that, his serve betrayed him as well. He produced only one ace in the second set and hit it at a much lower clip, which meant that chances opened up for the Brit.
The result was a 7-5, 6-1 win for Draper, who moved on to the 2024 Vienna Open quarter-finals. His next opponent will be the winner of the match between the third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Machac.
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