Draper defeats Berrettini on Stuttgart grass, wins his first ATP title

It was third time lucky for Jack Draper on Sunday at the Boss Open in Stuttgart. Playing in his third ATP final, the sixth-seeded Brit edged out two-time champion Italian Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to win his maiden ATP crown at Stuttgart Open trophy at Tennisclub Weissenhof Stuttgart on Sunday.

Draper becomes the first British champion in Boss Open history, and will become the British No1 on Monday for the first time in his career – the youngest to achieve the feat since Andy Murray.

“It’s obviously a huge honour for me,” Draper told the ATP. “I want to be a top 20, top 10 player and win big titles. If there’s someone ahead of me or not, they’re obviously doing a great job too. But if I am to be British No 1, I’m obviously incredibly proud of that and incredibly honoured to be in that position, and hopefully I can carry the flag forward.”

Draper had to navigate the challenge of facing a world-class grass-court player and he passed the test with flying colours on Sunday.

“It was a really tough match,” 40th-ranked Draper told the crowd. “I’m really happy to win my first title, it means so much to me.”

Draper fired 12 aces and saved three of four break points in the two-hour, four-minute clash. After dropping the opener, he won the second-set tiebreak, then engineered a critical break for 4-3 in the final set.

The Sutton, England native won his final eight points on serve to lock up the victory.

Berrettini: This one hurts

Berrettini cracked 14 aces and won 55 of 66 first-serve points as he remained unbroken through the first two and a half sets of the match, but 22-year-old Draper kept up the hunt and finally claimed the critical break in the third set to turn the match in his favour.

“Unbelievable match. I was so close. This one is gonna hurt a little bit, but that’s tennis – I won matches like this and I lost matches like this,” Berrettini told the crowd, adding: “This is hopefully a first step for the grass season.”

Draper is the eighth ATP player to claim a maiden title in 2024. He joins:

• Alejandro Tabilo, Auckland
• Jiri Lehecka, Adelaide
• Luciano Darderi, Cordoba
• Facundo Diaz Acosta, Buenos Aires
• Jordan Thompson, Los Cabos
• Jan-Lennard Struff, Munich
• Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard, Lyon

Berrettini falls to 40-9 lifetime on the grass, and 8-6 in ATP finals. Draper improves to 18-12 on the season and will make his top 30 debut in Monday’s ATP rankings thanks to his triumph.

“What an amazing final,” Draper said. “I was looking at your results on grass before we played today, winning two at Queen’s, winning two here, a final at Wimbledon. It just shows what an unbelievable player you are.”

Draper beat Austrian Sebastian Ofner (7-6 (4), 7-6 (5)), American Marcos Giron (6-4, 3-6, 6-3), American Frances Tiafoe, the No 4 seed (5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (1)) and American Brandon Nakashima (6-3, 6-3) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the Stuttgart tournament, Berrettini, ranked No 95, defeated Russian Roman Safiullin, the No 8 seed (7-6 (8), 5-7, 7-5), Canadian wildcard Denis Shapovalov (6-4, 6-4), Australian qualifier James Duckworth (6-4, 7-5) and No 5 seed Lorenzo Musetti (6-4, 6-0).

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