After his last tennis experience went badly because of yet another injury, Jack Draper returned this week at the ATP Challenger in Bergamo and went all the way.
Draper has oddly elected to skip the Paris Masters in favour of some challenger tennis in Bergamo. It's not the first time that he opted for such a move, as we've seen him play some challenger events earlier this year as well.
The Brit is in need of matches after missing much of this year due to injuries, and he got in Bergamo. Had he lost in the Paris Masters qualifiers, he likely wouldn't have gotten many, so maybe that was his calculation.
He's been amazing all week but faced tough opposition from David Goffin in the final. It was a challenger final, but with ATP main tour talent. Goffin smashed Draper in the opening set, leaving him with only one game.
The Brit was quite erratic and didn't really serve all too well, but Goffin played really well. He continued to do so throughout the match, at times looking quite a bit above Draper, but the Brit stuck around.
He won the second set in a very close tiebreaker and then won the final set with some tremendous play. He opted for an aggressive approach down the stretch, and it worked out for him as Goffin started to miss more.
Draper was actually down a break in that final set twice but rallied each time. He finished the match with 11 aces in the 1-6 7-6(3) 6-3 win, but aces weren't the real story.
It was the break points, as Goffin had 19 break points in total but converted only 5 of them. Draper actually only had three break points in the entire match and used all three of them.
The Belgian was up 2-0 and had 40-0 on the serve of Draper in that final set.
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